Key facts
- The European Parliament has rejected the member states' first draft of the EU long-term budget for 2028-2034.
- Lawmakers criticized proposed spending cuts of €32.8 billion as insufficient.
- The Parliament is pushing for a 10% budget increase and exclusion of Next Generation EU repayment from calculations.
- A deal is sought by the end of 2026 to avoid extending discussions into the crucial election year of 2027.
- The rejected draft was presented by Cyprus, which is currently chairing budget negotiations.
The European Parliament has rejected the member states' initial draft of the long-term EU budget for the 2028-2034 period, citing proposed spending cuts of €32.8 billion as insufficient. Lawmakers argued that these cuts would weaken an already inadequate budget, which was initially proposed by the European Commission in July 2025 at €2 trillion.
MEPs Carla Tavares and Siegfried Mureșan stated at a press conference that the Parliament "strongly rejects these cuts" and "firmly opposes the Council’s proposal to set funding for agriculture and cohesion at an even lower level than the already insufficient amount put forward by the European Commission." The Parliament is advocating for a 10% increase in the budget and has requested that the repayment of Next Generation EU funds not be included in the budget calculations.
The compromise text, presented by Cyprus which is currently chairing the budget negotiations, aimed to balance demands for substantial cuts from some member states with requests for increased funding for agriculture and regional funds from others. However, the divisions among co-legislators and the Parliament's rejection of the proposed cuts put pressure on reaching an agreement by the end of 2026, a deadline set to avoid prolonging discussions into 2027, a significant election year.
The draft text from the Cypriot presidency will serve as the basis for discussions among EU leaders scheduled for June 18-19 in Brussels. Lawmakers also criticized the draft for a lack of progress on "own resources," which refer to revenues from EU-level taxes.