Following the increasing pressure on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) due to rising interest rates, inflation, and unforseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Commission has tabled a proposal for its revision.
The European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs for the MFF held a press conference on the 20th of June about the Parliament’s first reaction to the proposal.
In 2020, when the long-term budget was agreed upon, the Commission committed to present a review of the budget in terms of its implementation and remaining availabilities due to the many additional challenges that the EU budget has been confronted with. What was presented was, however, not just a review, but a revision of the budget, which has been asked for by the European Parliament.
The Commission’s proposal increases the current MFF with around 100 billion euros. This is more than what was proposed by the Commission in 2018 and closer to what the European Parliament demanded. The proposed increase of the budget includes long-term support for Ukraine, support to address internal and external dimensions of migration, strengthening partnerships and addressing emergencies, and support for the EU’s long-term competitiveness on critical technologies in the fields of clean tech, deep tech and biotech through the Strategic Technologies in Europe Platform (STEP). Additionally, the EU administrative budget will be increased in order to cater to new tasks and the inflation.
Next steps
The next steps are for the rapporteurs to draft a resolution in response to the proposal, which will be adopted by the plenary in autumn. The Commission counts on the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union to achieve a rapid agreement immediately after the summer. The negotiations will run in parallel with the discussions about the annual EU budget for 2024, which will be in force by January.
You can find more details on the Parliament’s website.
To learn more about current calls for proposals or Eurodiaconia’s funding events, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Projects and EU Funding Officer Giorgia Signoretto at giorgia.signoretto@eurodiaconia.org.