The European Parliament's Budgets Committee has proposed increasing by 10% the European Union's next multiannual financial framework for the period 2028-2034, with the intention of strengthening new priorities such as defense, competitiveness, and the twin green and digital transition, without touching already consolidated items such as the common agricultural policy or cohesion funds.
The opinion, backed by 26 votes in favor, 9 against and 5 abstentions, places the volume of the long-term budget at 1.27% of the EU's gross national income, above the European Commission's initial proposal, and proposes to leave out of the spending ceiling the costs of repaying the debt linked to the NextGenerationEU recovery fund.
MEPs estimate that this reinforcement is the absolute minimum necessary to respond to challenges such as the war on European soil, the loss of competitiveness, economic and social difficulties, or the worsening of the climate and biodiversity crisis. At the same time, they underline the need to preserve the investment nature of the EU budget for the benefit of citizens, regions, and businesses.
In its mandate for negotiation, the European Parliament stresses that the financing of new priorities must not be done at the expense of traditional policies, which it defines as "the backbone of European solidarity". Therefore, it advocates maintaining specific funding lines for agriculture, cohesion or the European Social Fund and ensuring that regional and local authorities participate in the planning and management of these resources.
Furthermore, it rejects an implementation system supported by separate national plans, considering that it could lead to a "renationalization" of the budget and to an "à la carte" EU, which, it warns, would weaken common policies and diminish transparency.
The report also supports increasing the funds allocated to programs considered strategic such as Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ or the Connecting Europe Facility, as well as strengthening areas such as innovation, health or civil protection.
On the plane of external action, the MEPs also judge the current allocation insufficient and ask for more means for the enlargement of the EU, international cooperation, support for Ukraine, and humanitarian aid.
New resources and greater supervision
To cover this increase, the Parliament insists on the urgency of creating new own resources that allow sustaining the community budget and addressing the repayment of the joint debt, while supporting grouping different sources of income with the aim of generating around 60,000 million euros per year.
Among the proposed avenues are included taxes on digital services, online gambling, an expansion of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) or a tax on capital gains from crypto assets.
At the same time, MEPs emphasize that greater flexibility in budget execution cannot go against accountability nor democratic control, and warn that "flexibility without transparency could undermine trust" of citizens in the European Union.
The European Parliament expects to formally ratify this position in the plenary session of April 29, which will open the door to negotiations with the Council to close the long-term budget, which requires the agreement of the member states and the approval of the Parliament itself.