Revision of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021 to 2027: Securing sufficient resources for the EU

Written by Karoline Kowald and Marianna Pari.

The EU’s long-term budget for 2021 to 2027 was set at €1.1 trillion, together with a specific instrument to support the EU’s recovery from the pandemic, Next Generation EU (NGEU), providing €750 billion (2018 prices). Since 2021, the EU budget has already mobilised significant additional resources to cope with the pandemic and its impact, providing direct support totalling €70 billion to help EU citizens and enterprises, and countries outside the EU, cope with the COVID‑19 crisis. In 2022, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine generated more unexpected financing needs. The EU budget alone has contributed €50 billion to support Ukraine and its people, and help Member States cope with the multiple effects. As a result, the EU’s funds and instruments for addressing unexpected situations are severely depleted. The EU budget needs meaningful reinforcement to be able to respond to the challenges that still lie ahead.

On 20 June 2023, the Commission presented a revision of the EU’s long-term budget, including a package of budgetary and legislative proposals. It proposed an overall reinforcement of the EU budget by €65.8 billion, covering an increase in the budget headings, the special instruments and €17 billion in grants for Ukraine. For the Ukraine Facility, a further €33 billion in loans is proposed, bringing overall support to Ukraine to €50 billion. The Commission is also proposing a ‘Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform’ (STEP), to be financed through redeployments and with €10 billion of additional funds. Additional budgetary means are set aside for responses to migration challenges, and a specific instrument to cover the increasing borrowing cost of NGEU.

According to the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, the proposed revision is a positive step towards equipping the EU budget with the necessary financing means. However, the rapporteurs’ draft report argues that an additional €10 billion is required to address future challenges effectively.

This is a follow up to an earlier briefing on the EU’s long-term budget, published in June 2023.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Revision of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021 to 2027: Securing sufficient resources for the EU‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.