EU budget commissioner Piotr Serafin urged the bloc's so-called frugal member states to reconsider their calls for a smaller seven-year budget, arguing that one substantial budget delivers more impact than 27 smaller national ones.

"No one would claim that 27 separate earth observation systems would surpass Copernicus, or that developing individual satellite systems would beat Galileo," Serafin stated in his opening remarks at the European Commission's annual budget conference on Thursday (2 July).

Lower spending at EU level does not reduce overall expenditure but simply shifts it toward "more national spending," he noted.

His comments follow efforts by Germany, the Netherlands and other net contributors including Austria, Denmark and Sweden to press the incoming Irish presidency for deeper cuts to the next seven-year budget than those outlined by Cyprus.

On Tuesday, Germany suggested trimming the commission's proposed €2 trillion budget by roughly €400bn, around one fifth, which is ten times the scale of the roughly two-percent reduction in Cyprus's negotiating box.

Serafin countered the frugals' position by explaining that a smaller EU budget does not automatically lower costs for taxpayers.

"The alternative to European spending is more national spending," he said, adding that defence, energy security and research "will have to be financed one way or another."

Handling these areas separately "means a higher bill, more duplication, and fewer economies of scale," he added.

As an example, he pointed to the EU's Horizon research programme, which is set to grow from around €90bn in the current budget to €175bn under the commission's 2028-2034 proposal.