Help secured for Ukraine
The EU budget for 2024 is finalized after tough negotiations
November 11, 2023, 10:33 a.m
The EU can spend almost 190 billion euros next year. Parliament and the member states agree on this. The focus is on research and development, the European exchange program Erasmus and Ukraine. Only one country is opting out of further aid for Kiev.
The EU budget for the coming year is in place. On Saturday night, negotiators from the EU Parliament and the member states agreed that around 189.4 billion euros can be budgeted for 2024, as can be seen from the communications. Parliament said there would be more money, among other things, for dealing with the consequences of the war in Ukraine and global challenges, research, supporting young people – for example through the Erasmus program – and green spending.
The budget negotiations are particularly important for Germany because the Federal Republic, as the Union’s largest net contributor, contributes almost a quarter of the EU budget. At the same time, the federal government basically emphasizes that Germany benefits from the EU internal market more than any other European economy.
The agreement is a realistic approach that takes into account the current economic and geopolitical context, said the responsible Spanish State Secretary Esperanza Samblás. New challenges that could arise in 2024 will be taken into account. Spain currently holds the EU Council Presidency. Parliament and the states still have to formally confirm the agreement. Basically, the negotiations were about the question of how much money can be budgeted for 2024.
Ecology and digitalization are high on the agenda
In the summer, the EU Commission proposed a budget of 189.3 billion euros for the coming year, and green and digital spending should continue to be a priority. The EU countries wanted to provide around 187 billion euros. The framework for the annual budget was set by the long-term EU budget agreed in 2021. It covers around 1.1 trillion euros for the period 2021 to 2027.
This year’s negotiations for next year’s budget have been more complicated than usual, as an increase in the EU’s long-term budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), is currently being discussed. At the end of June, in view of the lack of money in the long-term community budget, the EU Commission asked the member states for an additional 66 billion euros for the coming years, among other things to finance additional aid for Ukraine. Several countries, including Germany, strongly criticized the demand for more money. There is only widespread agreement on further payments for Ukraine, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is threatening to veto this. A lengthy debate is looming.
After an agreement on the MFF, the budget for 2024 will be revised again. The money from the EU budget is intended to support, among other things, projects for better protection of the EU’s external borders and environmental and climate protection. As usual, a large part of the amount will be used to support farmers and comparatively poor regions in EU countries.