Written by Sidonia Mazur, updated on 27 November 2025.
On 26 November 2025, European Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola signed the European Union’s budget for 2026. It sets commitment appropriations at €192.77 billion and payments at €190.1 billion, including special instruments such as the Ukraine Facility and European Solidarity Reserve. For its priority programmes, Parliament obtained top-ups of over €372.7 million for research, border management, civil protection, environment, youth and humanitarian aid, among other things.
2026 Union budget
2026 budget allocation of commitments and payments under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) headings:
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 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. The European Parliament adopted its guidelines for the preparation of the 2026 budget, Section III, on 2 April 2025.
On 9 July 2025, the Commission adopted the 2026 draft EU budget (DB). The Commission proposed 2026 EU budget commitments of €193.26 billion, and €192.20 billion in payments. In its general introduction to the DB, the Commission underlined that ‘the draft budget 2026 will continue to provide the necessary funding for the agreed priorities of the Union, but the limited remaining availabilities leave virtually no space for any further unforeseen events or new initiatives’.
The Council adopted its position on the 2026 draft budget on 5 September, proposing to cut the proposed commitments by €1.3 billion and payments by €696.7 million.
Parliament’s rapporteur for the 2026 budget, Andrzej Halicki (EPP, Poland), presented his analysis of the Commission’s proposals and his assessment of the Council’s position in two working documents.
Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (BUDG) adopted amendments to the Council’s position on 6 October, and adopted an explanatory motion for a resolution on 13 October. BUDG set the overall level of commitments at €193.9 billion and payments at €192.6 billion, thereby restoring the 2026 draft budget appropriations on all lines cut by the Council. Moreover, BUDG proposed specific increases ‘to boost research, competitiveness, and defence’
The Commission published Amending letter No 1/2026 on 8 October, lowering draft 2026 budget expenditure by €386.1 million in commitments and by almost €1.89 billion in payments.
On 22 October 2025, Parliament voted on amendments to the Council’s position and thus adopted its reading of the Union budget for 2026 in line with the Committee on Budgets’ position.
Parliament’s adoption of amendments to the Council’s position triggered a conciliation procedure. Parliament’s President, in agreement with the President of the Council, convened the Conciliation committee, which then had until 17 November to agree on the 2026 EU budget. After the committee reached a provisional agreement on 15 November, the Council adopted the joint text on 24 November, confirming the agreement. Parliament adopted the joint text on 27 November and Parliament’s President signed the budget into law.
In line with the Parliament-Council conciliation agreement, commitment appropriations were set at €192.77 billion, which is a decrease of 3.3 % compared to the 2025 budget, including amending budgets (ABs) 1-3. This leaves a margin of €715.7 million below the 2026 MFF ceilings. The overall level of payment appropriations was set at €190.1 billion, which is an increase of 17.9 % compared to the 2025 budget, including Abs 1-3. This leaves a margin of €20.44 billion.
The overall needs of the Recovery Instrument (EURI) interest line of €4.2 billion above the financial programming for 2026 are to be financed in part by the remaining margin under sub-heading 2b of €99.6 million and by the mobilisation of over €2 billion under the Flexibility Instrument, for an overall amount of over €2.1 billion, corresponding to 50 % of the additional needs. The EURI will be mobilised for the remaining 50 %, (€2 112.7 million). This amount is fully covered by de-commitments made since 2021, in line with Article 10a(3)(a) of the MFF Regulation.
Next steps
The adopted annual 2026 Union’s budget will enter into force on 1 January 2026.
Further reading
- For adoption of the 2026 budget see: Adoption of the European Union’s 2026 budget
- For Parliament’s reading of the 2026 budget see: Parliament’s reading of the 2026 EU budget
- For key issues in EU budget see the EPRS flagship publication: Budgetary Outlook for the European Union 2025
- For key dates see: Timeline for the three key EU budgetary procedures in 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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