The European Commission to issue €70 billion in EU-Bonds in the second half of 2025

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

The European Commission announced yesterday its intention to issue up to €70 billion of EU-Bonds in the second half of 2025. 

The planned issuance builds on the €86 billion raised in the first half of the year, consistent with the previously communicated planned issuance for the entire 2025 of around €160 billion.

The issuance will fund disbursements for NextGenerationEU, and other policy programmes such as the Ukraine Facility, the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans and Macro Financial Assistance loans to neighbouring countries.

In line with the established practice, the Commission will carry out these issuances under its unified funding approach, using semi-annual funding plans to communicate target issuance volumes based on evolving financing needs.

The Commission will continue to issue NextGenerationEU Green Bonds to finance the green component of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). To date, €75 billion have been raised with NextGenerationEU Green Bonds.

Further NextGenerationEU Green Bond issuances will depend on Member States’ notification and validation of additional climate-relevant expenditures in line with the NextGenerationEU Green Bond Framework.

Background

The Commission borrows on international capital markets on behalf of the EU and disburses the funds to Member States and third countries under various borrowing programmes. EU borrowing is guaranteed by the EU budget, and contributions to the EU budget are an unconditional legal obligation of all Member States under the EU Treaties.

On the basis of EU-Bonds and NextGenerationEU Green Bonds raised since mid-2021, the Commission has so far disbursed over €304 billion in grants and loans to the EU Member States under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Up to €74 billion have been allocated to other EU programmes benefitting from NextGenerationEU funding. Over €16 billion have been disbursed to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility since its launch, that will finance up to €33 billion in loans to Ukraine between 2024 and 2027. This complements the €18 billion support under the Macro-financial Assistance+ in 2023.

In addition, €7 billion have recently been disbursed to Ukraine under the new €18 billion EU exceptional Macro Financial assistance loan which will be repaid with proceeds from immobilised Russian State assets as part of the G7-led Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) loans initiative.

At end-May 2025, EU Member States adopted the new the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument instrument which mandates the EU to raise an additional €150 billion through capital markets by end-2030 to finance the procurement of defence related capabilities through loans to Member States. Funding of the SAFE loans is expected to start in 2026 once Member State plans and loan agreements have been approved.

To support financing needs and ensure continued access to capital markets on favourable terms, the Commission is continuously enhancing the structure and the delivery of its borrowing operations.

Since January 2023, the Commission has been issuing single branded EU-Bonds rather than separately labelled bonds for individual programmes, structured in semi-annual funding plans and pre-announced issuance windows.

To support the secondary market liquidity of EU-Bonds, the Commission introduced in November 2023 a framework incentivising EU Primary Dealers to provide quotes on EU securities on electronic platforms. In addition, the Commission introduced a repurchase facility in early autumn 2024. 

Building on the enhanced role of EU-Bond and Bill auctions, particularly following the introduction of 3-leg auctions in the first half of 2025, the Commission intends to introduce non-competitive auction allocations to increase participation by EU Primary Dealers and investors placing orders through them.

In addition to EU-Bonds issuance, the Commission engages in short-term liquidity management operations to manage upcoming funding needs.