Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The European Commission welcomes the 2025 EU budget agreement, prioritizing political pledges, crisis management, and funding flagship projects like Horizon Europe.
The European Commission welcomes today’s agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council on the annual EU budget for 2025. The Commission stated that this budget will let the EU deliver on its political pledges, starting with the changes decided upon in the mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The annual EU Budget for 2025 will amount to €199.4 billion.
What key political pledges are funded in the 2025 budget?
According to the EU Commission, the annual EU budget 2025 will furnish the financial means to equip the EU’s political priorities and manage urgent crises domestically – starting with facilitating backing for the recent floods concerning several Member States – and beyond. It will continue to fund flagship projects such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus+.
Moreover, this is on top of the modification of the ceilings of the MFF approved earlier this year, for the first time ever. The modified MFF provides strong and predictable backing to Ukraine, reinforced financing to back European competitiveness through the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), and addresses the effects of the crisis in the Middle East and migratory pressures.
The annual EU budget for 2025 includes the expenditure surrounded by the appropriations under the long-term budget ceilings, funded from its resources. These are topped up by payments under NextGenerationEU, funded from borrowing on the capital markets. Two amounts for each agenda are proposed in the draft budget – commitments and payments. As reported by the Commission, “Commitments” refer to the funding that can be agreed in arrangements in a given year; and “payments” to the money paid out. All amounts are in current costs.
Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn said: “We continue fulfilling our political commitments and deliver the financial means to tackle current and future challenges of the European Union – the green and digital transitions, improving the Union’s resilience, addressing the outcomes of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and the continued problem in the Middle East. The contract found between the co-legislators strikes a good balance between Europe’s urgent financing needs and the continuity of successful programmes that drive Europe forward.”
