On Wednesday 4 June, the European Commission presented its budget proposal for 2026, amounting to €193.26 billion in commitment appropriations. Last year, the proposed envelope was €199.7 billion (see EUROPE 13435/5).
To this budget will be added an estimated €105.32 billion for disbursements under Next Generation EU, the EU’s post-pandemic instrument.
While total commitment appropriations are lower than in 2025, the draft budget for 2026 includes “stable and predictable funding for Ukraine through the Ukraine Facility” and increased funding for security and defence, asylum and migration.
In addition, additional funding of €4.1 billion under the proposed mid-term review of cohesion policy will allow Member States to reprogramme available cohesion funds “towards emerging priorities, such as competitiveness, defence, affordable housing, water resilience and energy transition”.
Presenting his draft to the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, the European Commissioner for the Budget, Piotr Serafin, also pointed to a “significant budget increase for border guards and coast guards” under heading 4.
Some decisions welcomed by MEPs. Nicolae Ștefănuță (Greens/EFA, Romanian) “welcomed” the increase in Erasmus + funding. Hélder Sousa Silva (EPP, Portuguese), for his part, highlighted “the huge increase in payments for cohesion under heading 2a” and Stine Bosse (Renew Europe, Danish) what had been proposed for Horizon Europe, InvestEU and security.
But MEPs were concerned about the small margins left in the budget by the repayment of interest on the Next Generation EU debt and the amount of payments allocated to heading 7 (European public administration). Parliament’s rapporteur for the 2026 budget, Andrzej Halicki (EPP, Polish), estimated that in 2026 the budget will offer no more than the “status quo”.
“For the time being, the 2026 budget is moderate”, agreed Piotr Serafin, while pointing out that there were no surprises and recalling that the EU Council had opposed the strengthening of heading 7. The Commissioner also expects Member States to ask why contributions to the budget should be increased.
The first trilogue is scheduled for 17 July.
For further information: https://aeur.eu/f/h6g (Original version in French by Florent Servia)