Extraordinary European summit on mid-term budget review to be held Feb. 1

Brussels – Feb. 1. The extraordinary European summit to find an agreement on the mid-term review of the long-term budget (2021-2027) already has a date. This was confirmed today (Dec. 18) by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who had called for it after the heads of state and government failed to reach an agreement at last week’s summit.

https://x.com/CharlesMichel/status/1736780632284332378?s=20

Turning against the revision of the EU financial framework until 2027 is Hungary, which is opposed to the new financing instrument for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros from the EU budget. Rather than drag discussions beyond the duration of the Council, Michel noted on Friday the substantial convergence of 26 out of 27 governments, then halted discussions and postponed decisions until 2024 by evoking the need for an extraordinary summit to discuss only the budget. It cannot be ruled out that a 26-party solution could be worked on, overcoming the problem of unanimity by releasing the 50 billion in support for Ukraine in a separate instrument and leaving the budget review to cover only EU priorities, as emerged last week.

64 billion for new EU priorities

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Support for Ukraine, migration and external dimension, Strategic Technologies for Europe platform, the NextGenerationEU recovery fund, interest payments, special instruments, new own resources, and elements that reduce the impact on national budgets: This is the compromise package put on the plate by the Belgian politician. Figures, especially in terms of fresh resources, that the head of the European Council revises downward.

According to Michel’s proposal, which will now be re-discussed in February, the budget increase would come to a total of 64.6 billion euros, including 33 billion in loans and 10.6 billion in reallocations from existing framework resources. Michel proposes to maintain resources for Ukraine at 50 billion euros (including 17 billion euros in grants and 33 billion euros in loans); 2 billion for migration and border management; and 7.6 billion for neighborhood and world; 1.5 billion earmarked for the European Defense Fund under the new Step instrument (Strategic Technology Platform for Europe); another 2 billion for the Flexibility Instrument; and finally 1.5 billion for the Solidarity and Aid Reserve.