The EU's long-term budget

What is the EU's long-term budget?

Since 1988, the EU has been functioning with long-term budgets called multiannual financial frameworks (MFF).

Long-term budgets provide a stable framework, with overall spending limits to:

• align spending with the EU’s political priorities
• increase predictability of EU finances for co-financers and beneficiaries
• ensure budgetary discipline
• make it easier to adopt the annual EU budget

Currently, the MFF covers a period of seven years. It sets limits (also called ‘ceilings’) for EU annual expenditure for:

• total commitments in a given year
• total payments in a given year
• commitments and payments in each area of EU spending (‘headings’)

What are commitments and payments?

Total commitments correspond to the maximum amount of legal obligations – such as contracts or grants – that the EU can enter into in a given year. These amounts are not necessarily paid out in the same year but may be spent over subsequent financial years.

Total payments are the actual amounts spent in a given year. They arise from legal commitments made in the same year or in previous ones.

The purpose of these limits is to:

• manage the overall size of the EU budget
• protect the amounts for each area in line with the EU’s priorities

However, the budget also requires flexibility to deal with unexpected challenges – such as crises and emergencies – and changing spending priorities. The MFF therefore includes provisions and ‘special instruments’ to make sure that, even in unforeseen circumstances, money can be used when and where it is most needed.

The EU's long-term budget for 2021-2027

The current long-term budget runs for the 2021-2027 period. It includes a comprehensive financial package amounting to:

• €1 216 billion under the multiannual financial framework (in current prices)
• €807 billion under the extraordinary recovery instrument, Next Generation EU (in current prices)

In June 2023, the MFF 2021-2027 underwent a mid-term revision and was reinforced with a further €64.6 billion, to finance priorities such as support for Ukraine, migration and external action.

• The EU's long-term budget 2021-2027

The EU's long-term budget for 2028-2034

On 16 July and 3 September 2025, the Commission presented its proposals for the next MFF, amounting to almost €2 trillion.

Discussions on the proposals have since progressed at both technical and political level in the General Affairs Council. 

Ministers have held several exchanges of views on the structure of the future MFF, including its main headings, governance and horizontal aspects.

In December 2025, EU leaders took note of the first negotiating box prepared by the Danish presidency and called on incoming presidencies to continue work with a view to reaching an agreement before the end of 2026, allowing for the timely adoption of the related legislation in 2027.

On 11 June 2026, the Cyprus Presidency presented a revised negotiating box with figures, marking a key step in negotiations on the EU's next long-term budget.

The long-term budget negotiations explained

The European Council and the Council of the EU have a central role in the process of establishing the EU’s long-term budget.

Negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget kick off a few years before the period covered by the new budget is due to start. The formal process begins with the presentation of the so-called multiannual financial framework package by the European Commission.

The package includes, most notably:

• a multiannual financial framework regulation, which lays down how much the EU can spend
• an own resources decision, which defines where EU revenue comes from

The General Affairs Council is responsible for the work on the MFF package and prepares the so-called negotiating box.

The draft negotiating box brings together those elements which are most likely to require political direction and priority-setting from EU leaders. The aim is to facilitate the preparation of draft European Council conclusions on the MFF, which are tabled by the President of the European Council.

In the European Council, EU leaders provide political guidance on the main features of the long-term budget. This enables the Council to reach its position.

The MFF regulation is adopted under a special legislative procedure:

• unanimity is required to secure a deal in the Council
• the consent of the European Parliament is required to conclude the decision-making process
• in practice, the Parliament may approve or reject the Council's position but it may not make amendments to it

The own resources decision requires:

• a unanimous agreement for adoption in the Council
• an opinion from the Parliament
• ratification by every member state according to its constitutional requirements before entering into force

• Special legislative procedure

How are sectoral programmes decided?

The Commission also makes proposals for sectoral programmes for the new programming period.

Sectoral Council configurations are responsible for work on EU funding programmes within the Council.

For example, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council works on the legislative proposals related to the common agricultural policy (CAP), the Competitiveness Council on the programmes for the single market, research and space.

With few exceptions, these programmes are decided together with the Parliament by ordinary legislative procedure.

The financial and horizontal aspects of the programmes depend on the outcome of the MFF negotiations.

• Council configurations
• Ordinary legislative procedure

Protecting the EU budget

A key feature of the MFF which protects the EU budget, the so-called ‘general regime of conditionality for the protection of the EU budget’ comes into play where it is established that breaches of the principles of the rule of law in a member state affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the EU budget or the protection of the financial interests of the EU in a sufficiently direct way.

So far, this mechanism has been applied once: in December 2022, in the particular case of Hungary.

• Rule of law conditionality regulation (European Commission)
• Rule of law conditionality mechanism: Council decides to suspend €6.3 billion given only partial remedial action by Hungary (press release, 12 December 2022)

See also