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European Commission wants larger EU budget

by AI | 12.Feb 2025 | Europe in brief AI

The EU budget needs to be larger, and for that, new own resources are necessary, according to the European Commission in its plan presented on Wednesday to come to a new multi-annual budget. In that plan, there are no concrete proposals to tap these new own resources, but the most obvious is a higher contribution from the member states to the EU. The Netherlands is strongly opposed to this.

The European Commission wants a larger budget from 2028. Photo: BTA

BRUSSELS (ANP) – The Schoof cabinet wants to contribute less to the EU. That is not an option, says the European Commission. The EU needs more of its own money to repay the loans it took out to provide economic assistance to member states during and after the corona crisis, says the European Commission. In addition, she says more money is needed for investments in joint defense and making Europe more competitive.

The Commission does not report what the size of the EU budget should be from 2028. Currently, more than 121 billion euros is involved annually.

The Commission also wants to tackle the distribution of existing funds. This concerns the cohesion policy fund, which accounts for a third of the EU budget. Through cohesion policy, disadvantaged regions in the EU must be helped forward. The Commission speaks of the largest ever revision of the way funds will be distributed from 2028.

Dutch MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (D66, part of the liberal faction Renew) is in favor of a larger EU budget. “The current budget is not even 1 percent of the entire economy. We want to quickly move to two or even three percent.” He disagrees with the Dutch cabinet’s position.

Faction leader Iratxe García Pérez of the social democrats, the second party of the European Parliament, said in a debate on Wednesday that the EU budget must be doubled.

The European Commission will present a concrete proposal for a new multi-annual budget 2028-2034 in July. Negotiations with the European Parliament and the member states will soon take two years.

(February 12, 2025)