2021-2027 MFF by heading

The July 2020 European Council meeting reached political agreement on a €1 074.3 billion MFF combined with the €750 billion NGEU. Many analysts deemed the total package momentous, notably for the launch of the unprecedented recovery instrument. However, the size of the 2021-2027 MFF agreed by the European Council represents a decrease in resources when compared to the current MFF (excluding the United Kingdom but including the currently off-budget European Development Fund). The new MFF is structured in seven policy areas or ‘headings’ (see Figure 1). As compared to the Commission proposal of May 2020, resources for funds with geographically pre-allocated expenditure such as cohesion policy and agriculture have been increased (by 2.2 % and 0.9 %). ‘Migration and Border Management’ and ‘Security and Defence’, the two headings affected by the largest relative cuts, have higher allocations than in 2014-2020, but significantly lower than in the Commission proposals and in Parliament’s position of November 2018. The same applies to instruments considered to be investments in EU common goods, such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus+. As for special instruments outside the MFF ceilings to address unexpected events, their amounts for 2021-2027 were set at €20.1 billion, including a reserve to tackle the impact of Brexit.