EU leaders advocate budget agreement by 2034 “in time”

Oeuropean Union (EU) leaders, meeting in Brussels today, defended a “in good time” agreement on the long-term Community budget from 2028 to 2034, but did not set a deadline for concluding negotiations.

“The European Council invites its President [António Costa] to continue negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement in good time,” EU leaders point out in the conclusions adopted today at the first of two days of the European summit in Brussels.

In the written conclusions, the Heads of State or Government of the Union point out that “an agreement before the end of 2026 would allow the adoption of legislative acts in 2027, which is necessary to ensure that EU funding reaches beneficiaries without interruption in January 2028.”.

“Following the presentation by the Irish Presidency of an updated version of the negotiating framework, the European Council discussed the main elements needed to achieve a balanced compromise on the next Multiannual Financial Framework,” the text states.

Last weekend, the Irish presidency of the EU Council presented a proposal for the next EU multiannual budget by 2034 with 8% cuts from the initial document of the European Commission.

Portugal has secured a national allocation of €35.1 billion in the proposal of the Irish Presidency of the EU, but it requires an additional €1 billion for the outermost regions, the Azores and Madeira.

The country has already threatened to block the agreement if it does not achieve this amount, which is foreseen in the EU Treaties.

The President of the European Council, António Costa, will now assume the conduct of the negotiations, which are based on the balance between traditional priorities, such as cohesion and agriculture, and the strengthening of areas such as competitiveness, defence and research.

The person responsible has been advocating the need to reach a political agreement later this year, taking into account the possible constraints arising from the 2027 electoral calendar, particularly in France, Italy and Greece, to which elections are now being held in Spain as early as November this year.

According to European sources, António Costa considers it “cruitful” to reach an agreement in December and called on the Member States to assume this responsibility.

The former Portuguese Prime Minister will now work with the European Commission and the Member States on an updated negotiating framework proposal, which will include new own resources and will be presented “in the coming weeks”, according to the same Community sources as Lusa.

According to European leaders involved in the process, today's discussion has shown that the future EU budget will need to reconcile the containment of Member States' financial burdens with the maintenance of Community funding priorities and objectives, and also provide room for manoeuvre to address unforeseen events such as natural disasters or crises.

European leaders are due to meet in November at an extraordinary summit to promote convergence of positions between Member States.

The Multiannual Financial Framework sets EU spending limits for several years.

Adoption requires unanimity in the EU Council after consent of the European Parliament.