Brussels,

Briefing

EU Budget for 2021-2027 period: €1.76 trillion in 2025 prices

The EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034 is the Commission’s proposed 7-year EU budget for the period starting 1 January 2028. The European Commission tabled the core proposal on 16 July 2025, and then completed the package with additional legal acts on 2 September 2025.

Size

• “Almost €2 trillion” over 2028–2034, designed as a more “dynamic” budget.
• The Commission frames it at around 1.26% of EU GNI on average, and discussions also factor in the cost of repaying NextGenerationEU debt (often presented as a separate GNI share).

What it tries to change (politically the big deal)

• More flexibility + simplification: fewer/streamlined programmes, faster reallocation when crises or priorities shift.
• A stronger “competitiveness / sovereignty” thrust: more emphasis on industrial capacity, resilience, and strategic technologies (language varies across the package).
  
• A controversial restructuring of “traditional” spending: the proposal is widely reported as pooling/merging major envelopes (notably agriculture and cohesion/regional spending) to give member states more room to steer via national plans—this is one of the biggest flashpoints with the European Parliament.
• External action / geopolitical line: the Commission presents the budget as matching a more geopolitical EU; reporting around the proposal highlights a sizeable external component, including support for Ukraine being discussed as a major item.
  

1) Big picture and size

• Commission proposal (16 July 2025; completed with further acts on 3 September 2025): total commitments of €1.76 trillion in 2025 prices (often described as “almost €2 trillion” in current/nominal terms).
• This equals ~1.26% of EU GNI, and includes €149.3bn (0.11% GNI) earmarked for repayment of NextGenerationEU (NGEU) debt.

2) Governance and delivery model (the structural reform)

• A core shift is pooling several shared-management instruments (notably touching cohesion, agriculture and other lines) into national/territorial “Partnership Plans” to increase flexibility and link spending to reforms/investments agreed upfront.
• This governance redesign is one of the main political fault lines because it can move policy weight from EU-level programmes toward national allocation choices.

3) CAP and cohesion (traditional spending)

• The Commission’s architecture is widely read as merging/“pooling” CAP + cohesion streams under broader national envelopes (even if some farming payments are “ring-fenced” in practice), which has triggered strong pushback.
• European Parliament “red line” (as reported): keep CAP and cohesion separate, with clear EU frameworks/objectives and dedicated financing lines.

4) Competitiveness, industry, innovation

• A headline reprioritisation is a bigger competitiveness/strategic autonomy emphasis, including a proposed European Competitiveness Fund (Reuters reports €451bn in the Commission plan).
• Stakeholders such as BusinessEurope welcome simplification and a more competitiveness-oriented intent, while flagging uncertainties in design/implementation.

5) Security and defence

• The proposal significantly raises the profile of security/defence and space compared with the current MFF (Reuters reports €131bn for defence/space in the plan).

6) External action and Ukraine

• External action is framed more “geopolitically”; major press reporting on the package highlighted a sizeable external pillar and discussion of support for Ukraine as a large item (figures differ by presentation).

7) Process and timeline (what happens next)

• It is still a proposal: the MFF needs unanimity in the Council (member states) and consent of the European Parliament, so negotiation leverage is real on both sides.
• Early debate has been sharp around (1) how much the budget should grow, and (2) whether agriculture and cohesion should remain distinct EU policies with their own safeguards.
• Council timeline signal: EU leaders have called for an MFF agreement before end-2026 to allow adoption of sectoral rules in 2027 and avoid a funding gap in Jan 2028.