The Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU, launched on 1 January, aims to aid make a common position for the associate States on the multiannual financial framework for the period 2028–2034. This year the EU institutions will be negotiating on the detailed form of the multiannual EU budget. The European Parliament expressed reservations about any of the European Commission's proposals of July 2025. Euro MPs have opposed, among others, national financial envelopes combining common agricultural policy and cohesion policy.
– The multiannual financial framework is the multiannual budget of the European Union. Through this tool, the European Union is planning its expenditure for the next 7 years. It determines how much money we can spend and what. As regards milestones, all negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework begin 2 to 3 years before the period to be covered by this framework. said erstwhile European Parliament press attaché during the December plenary session in Strasbourg.
The current MFF for the period 2021-2027 amounts to around EUR 1.21 trillion in fixed prices from 2018, corresponding to around 1.1% of the gross national income of all associate States of the European Union (GNI). The fresh position presented by the European Commission in July 2025 for the period 2028–2034 assumes expenditure of nearly EUR 2 trillion at current prices, or 1.26 percent GNI.
– The Multiannual Financial Framework sets out a kind of spending framework. They talk about how much per cent of the budget we can allocate to individual objectives, to individual programmes that are carried out under the EU budget. As regards the exact amounts, they are fixed from year to year. This budget from year to year not only is passed, it is besides later settled and controlled by the European Parliament – explains Bartosz Ochapski.
In its position last year, the European Parliament set out a number of priorities for the next EU perspective. He stressed that another long-term budget must be much more ambitious than the current budget for the period 2021 to 1927, resulting from the increasing number of tasks facing the Union.
"For the European Parliament, it is crucial to increase the resources, due to the fact that in order for the European Union to work smoothly, Members felt that there was a request to increase the available resources that the EU could manage. – points out the expert. "The second most crucial thing is the deficiency of agreement with the European Commission's proposal, which talks about the creation of individual national envelopes. This would mean in practice that we are giving up EU-wide programmes, for example, for the financing of regional development, and alternatively there are funds that are full available to the associate States. The European Parliament refuses to agree to this, as it believes that the EU budget should be primarily allocated to objectives which are either unattainable or hard to meet by national states separately.
In their position, Europeans besides expressed concerns about the future of the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy. In the current financial perspective, both policies function as separate pillars of the European Union budget. The combination of these in a single pool of measures could, according to critics, lead to direct competition for funds and undermine the stableness of both agriculture and regional development.
– Parliament advocates that access to funds within the European Union budget should be linked to compliance with the regulation of law and respect for the law by associate States – emphasises Bartosz Ochapski.
The draft multiannual financial framework will now be the subject of negotiations by the European Commission with the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The final agreement on the EU budget for the period 2028-2034 requires the unanimity of the associate States and the consent of the EP.
