Overall margins

While those amounts seem enormous at first sight, the available funds in the EU’s long-term budget were tight from the start. In case of unforeseen events, the necessary funds can only be provided either by redeployments between different programmes or by consuming the margins under the ceilings of the different headings or through the mobilisation of special instruments.
In February 2021, the overall margin available for the remaining years was projected at €5.5 billion. Already at the start of the new MFF, margins and special instruments had to be used to counter the adverse economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which proved more persistent than initially hoped. The situation changed dramatically for the worse after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. From the first day of the war, the EU has stood united in its unwavering support for Ukraine. The EU and its Member States, together as ‘Team Europe’, have delivered financial, military and humanitarian support to Ukraine on an unprecedented scale. To date, around €50 billion from the EU budget has been committed to support Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees and sectors of the EU economy affected by the war (see Figure 1). As a result, large parts of the margins have been used up. According to the Commission’s most recent – June 2023 – estimates, the overall margin stands at €2.7 billion (51 % less than in February 2021).