N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Last year, the European Commission proposed a multi-year budget of about 2,000 billion euros or 1.26 percent of the gross national income of the 27 member states for the period 2028-2034. An increase compared to the 1.12 percent in the current budget, but these increase is mainly due to the repayment of the tens of billions from the corona recovery fund. In order to increase investment in new priorities such as defence, energy networks and industrial policy, the Commission therefore proposed to cut bac on traditional programmes such as agriculture and cohesion.
But for the European Parliament, the Commission proposal is not ambitious enough. A majority supported the proposal to increase all current programmes by 10 percent, almost 200 billion extra, and to leave out of the budget the repayment of the corona debts. One of the EP rapporteurs, the Romanian Muresan calls it ‘a modest increase’. The parliament is looking at new own revenue for the EU to repay the corona debts.
The member states have yet to agree on their negotiation position. They are not prepared to increase their national contribution to the EU budget. Most of them are raising already their national budgets for defense, energy networks and industries. Key net EU contributors such as Germany and the Netherlands considered already the Commission proposal too ambitious. ‘A huge increase in the budget as proposed by the Commission is not an option’, said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after the informal European Council meeting in Cyprus where the leaders discussed the long-time budget for the first time. Council President Antonio Costa has the ambition to reach an agreement between the member states by the end of the year.
But at the end, the consent of the EP is also needed. ‘These will be the most difficult negotiations on the long-term budget,’ said EP President Roberta Metsola.
