: EU leaders to lock horns over budget issues as Brexit leaves huge budget void

European Union leaders will have to figure by themselves the surfacing budget issues they now inevitably face as Britain formally left the bloc in January. The void is in the bloc’s 2021-2027 finances, with Britain plucking out a whopping 75 billion euro ($81 billion) budget from the EU.

The coming seven-year budget plan covering the year 2021 up to the year 2027, the bloc has to start dealing with the potential loss of 1.074% of the EU’s gross national income (GNI), amounting to 1.09 trillion euros.

As the EU nation leaders meet on Thursday, they will try to end the feud over hundredths of percentage points that remained unsolved in the past two years.

“Tomorrow’s summit is a complex and complicated summit because the proposal we have received does not meet our expectations,” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a statement.

The budget of the E.U. is coming from different sources including sales tax cut, antitrust fines, national contributions, and customs duties on goods. The budget is spent on subsidies for farmers, living standard equalizer aids, research, security, and so on.