Europe Trillion euro budget: majority in EU Parliament against
A majority of the European Parliament rejects the EU Commission's proposal for the next long-term EU budget.
30.10.2025, 13:27
SDA
The proposal does not guarantee that the needs of the regions outside the capital cities will be met. Furthermore, it distorts the EU internal market and fair competition in the agricultural sector, write the leaders of several political groups in a letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and call for changes. The European Parliament could not accept the proposal as a basis for negotiations.
The letter was signed by the group leaders of the conservative EPP, Manfred Weber, the social democratic S&D, Iratxe García, the liberal Renew, Valérie Hayer, and the Greens, Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout, as well as the groups' respective budget negotiators. It has been submitted to the German Press Agency (dpa).
If each member state makes its own plans and large sums of money are not clearly allocated, this will lead to fragmentation and less solidarity, they criticize. Together, the political groups have 454 of the 720 seats in the European Parliament.
EU Commission wants to distribute funds differently
According to the EU Commission, the next multi-annual budget should comprise around 2 trillion euros (around 1.85 trillion Swiss francs) - that is around 700 billion euros more than is currently budgeted for the current seven-year budget period. While there are currently several pots for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and for structural support for underdeveloped regions, the Commission wants there to be just one large fund for this in future.
The parliamentarians warn that merging the policy areas would make each of them less important. A separate budget for each area would give the recipients of EU funds more security and reliability. They also demand that structural funding policy should not be planned and implemented by national governments alone. They also state: "A level playing field for farmers must be maintained - instead of the current proposal with minimal common rules."
EU Parliament can reject proposal
MEPs want to be involved in the approval and amendment of national plans, "as well as in all decisions on flexibility amounts and adjustments to new priorities". They also want to play a greater role in drawing up the EU budget for individual years.
The long-term EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), is adopted using a special legislative procedure. The EU countries must adopt it unanimously and the European Parliament must give its consent. If the necessary majority for approval is not reached in Parliament, the proposal is deemed to have been rejected.
