Leaders set the work programme for the 2028-2034 EU budget to the Cypriot Presidency

Brussels – Swift action for everyone’s sake: The summit of heads of state and government issues a call for quick progress on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 to ensure the smooth functioning of existing and future programmes without disruption. The European Council conclusions convey the sense of urgency in the timetable set out by leaders for the full approval process.

The Twenty-Seven call on “the incoming presidency” of the Council of the EU, or the Republic of Cyprus (1 January-30 June 2026) to “continue the work, with a view to a timely agreement”, where “timely” means this time sequence: “An agreement before the end of 2026 would allow for the adoption of
legislative acts in 2027, which is necessary to ensure that EU funding reaches
beneficiaries without interruption in January 2028.“

There is a work programme, but implementing it may be easier said than done. There has already been criticism of the common draft budget in Parliament and even more so among Member States. They do not like the idea of a nearly EUR 2 trillion budget; nor do they like the single fund combining agricultural and cohesion policy, or the proposals for own resources. Further complicating the political confrontation is the demand that the “rebate,” the compensation to certain Member States for their financial contributions to the EU budget, be maintained even beyond 2027, in 2028. A hypothesis voiced by Austria last month, one of the countries benefiting from this measure, but which the Danish presidency revived to the displeasure of other delegations.

 According to diplomatic sources, “an element that was very disturbing was the Danish Presidency’s surprise inclusion of ‘rebates’.” The initiative is said to have provoked an outcry from the French and Italian side in particular, also because the proposal would not even be to reduce the amounts but to maintain the current ones.