Written by Sidonia Mazur.
On 2 April 2025, the European Parliament adopted its guidelines for the preparation of the 2026 budget, Section III – Commission, with 441 votes in favour, 173 against, and 70 abstentions. Parliament’s general rapporteur for the 2026 EU budget, Andrzej Halicki (EPP, Poland), pointed out that the ‘compromise underlines key priorities, including defence, security, energy, competitiveness, agriculture, economic resilience, crisis response, health, democracy, and a stronger Union in a changing world’.
Background – 2026 budget procedure
The European Parliament is one of the two arms of the European Union’s budgetary authority, the Council being the other. The two institutions, assisted by the European Commission, decide on the budget in the annual EU budget procedure, within the limits of the long-term EU budget – the multiannual financial framework (MFF). Although it is the European Commission’s right and duty to propose a draft budget for the upcoming year, the two arms of the EU budgetary authority, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, play their part in the run-up to its presentation by submitting their views. The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) agreed on its guidelines for the 2026 EU budget on 18 February 2025.
Next steps
The adoption of the 2026 draft budget (DB) by the Commission in spring or early summer will be the next step in the budgetary procedure.
Further reading
- For key issues in EU budget see EPRS flagship publication: Budgetary Outlook for the European Union 2025
- For Parliament’s guidelines for the 2026 budget: Parliament’s guidelines for the 2025 EU budget. Section III – European Commission
- For more on Parliament’s role in the EU annual budgetary procedure see: Annual EU budgetary procedure: An introduction to the steps in the European Parliament
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