EU enters “decisive phase” to close budget, says António Costa

“ Aour teams are working hard together for the same objective: to reach an agreement by the end of the year,” said António Costa, in Ireland, where he met today with Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Micheál Martin.

At a press conference at the end of the meeting, Costa took a four-week standby for EU capitals, referring to having received “unanimous support for the goal of reaching an agreement at the end of the year”, for the new long-term budget to enter into force on 1 January 2028.

Only the capitals of the Netherlands, where it will be on October 9th, and Sweden, will be missing from Costa, which will visit as soon as a new government is formed following the elections of 13th.

“ We are entering a decisive phase in the negotiations,” he recalled, with a debate on the new negotiating proposal (‘negobox’ in Brussels’s slang) of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 scheduled for the next European Council meeting on 15 and 16 October.

The negotiating framework that Dublin is preparing – having the meeting between the two leaders also served to compare notes – should be presented before the October summit, preparing the ground for discussions that are expected to take the 27 closest to an agreement.

In order to reach an agreement, the leader of the European Council explained that “a balance between three main aspects — the size and distribution of the budget the amount of national contributions and new own resources”, hoping the former Portuguese Prime Minister will clarify at the summit “an updated and revised set of new own resources”.

“a strong budget is the cornerstone of the EU’s capacity for action”.

On the new resources, derived from European taxes, it was said that it should be “an indispensable piece of this difficult puzzle”.

António Costa also said that the new context “requires a modernised budget, with a new structure, that meets common priorities in areas such as defence and security, competitiveness and innovation”, while maintaining support for agricultural and cohesion policies.

The European Commission presented in July 2025 a proposal for MFF 2024-2032 of EUR 2 billion in current prices, equivalent to about 1.26% of the EU's average gross national income.

After the formal adoption of the package by the European Parliament (which as a rule advocates an amount above the proposal) and the EU Council (capitals always advocate cuts) and the ratification of sources of own revenue, the new MFF enters into force on 1 January 2028, serving as a ceiling and framework for the EU's annual budgets by 2034.