EU budget 2026: Providing crucial funding for EU priorities in times of global volatility

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today’s proposal by the European Commission sets the 2026 EU budget at €193.26 billion, complemented by an estimated €105.32 billion in disbursements under NextGenerationEU. Building on the mid-term revision of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), next year’s draft budget is designed to support strategic objectives, including support for Ukraine, competitiveness, migration management, security and defence, and strategic investments, while maintaining momentum on green and digital priorities.

This budget proposal comes after a series of unpredicted developments over the 2021-2027 MFF period, including a global pandemic, an energy crisis and spiking inflation, the return of war on the European continent, and growing geopolitical tensions on the global scene.

The EU budget continues to show its versatility in addressing new developments within a constrained framework. However, it has also demonstrated the limits of its means, requiring a mid-term revision to address the most pressing issues, including the additional needs for Ukraine, migration management, responding to the crisis in the Middle East, among others. The revision has guaranteed sufficient funding for ongoing priorities such as the green and digital transition, while stimulating economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

The draft budget for 2026 will continue to provide crucial funding for the EU’s political priorities. It includes stable and predictable funding for Ukraine through the Ukraine Facility, as well as reinforced funding for security and defence, asylum and migration. Moreover, a major development in the Draft Budget is the additional funding foreseen under the Cohesion Mid-Term review proposal. This creates major incentives and flexibilities for Member States to reprogramme available Cohesion funding towards emerging priorities, notably in the areas of competitiveness, defence, affordable housing, water resilience and energy transition.

The Commission proposes to allocate the following amounts to the various EU priorities:

The full overview of the Commission proposal for the Draft Annual Budget can be found in the ‘Questions & Answers’ document.

Next steps

The annual budget for 2026 will have to be formally adopted by the Budgetary Authority before the end of the year.

Background

The draft EU budget for 2026 includes the expenditure covered by the appropriations under the long-term budget ceilings, financed from own resources. These are topped up by expenditure under NextGenerationEU, financed from borrowing on the capital markets. For the “core” budget, two amounts for each programme are proposed in the draft budget – commitments and payments. “Commitments” refer to the funding that can be agreed in contracts in a given year, and “payments” to the money actually paid out. All amounts are in current prices.

With a budget of up to €807 billion in current prices, NextGenerationEU helps repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and make the EU fit for the future. The instrument helps build a post-COVID-19 EU that is greener, more digital, more resilient and better prepared for the current and forthcoming challenges. The centrepiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) – an instrument for providing grants and loans to support reforms and investments in the EU Member States. The contracts/commitments under NextGenerationEU can be concluded until the end of 2023, the payments linked to the borrowing will follow until the end of 2026.

For More Information

Questions and Answers about the Draft Annual Budget 2026

All EU annual budget documents

Annual budget procedure

Revision of the EU budget 2021-2027

2021-2027 long-term EU budget & NextGenerationEU

Commission 2024-2029 Priorities

EU budget in motion

EU as a borrower

A modernised Cohesion policy: The mid-term review