'Positions not matching yet' as EU leaders fight for slice of budget pie

FILE PHOTO: European flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - From supporting Ukraine to boosting military might and managing migration, European Union leaders channelled diverging priorities on Thursday as they started debating where to put more money from their shared budget in the next four years.

The EU is due to decide in December on a revision of the bloc's 2021-27 budget worth 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trln), which is already strained by emergency spending during the COVID pandemic and since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.