As negotiations on the European Union’s next long-term budget for 2028-2034, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), enter a decisive phase, the PES MFF Working Group calls for an ambitious budget with a sustainable size that meets the scale of the challenges.
Bringing together representatives from PES parties, national governments, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Committee of the Regions, the fifth meeting of the PES MFF Working Group focused on the state of play of negotiations as discussions move from broad political orientations towards concrete decisions on funding levels and budgetary priorities.
With the Council expected to advance work on its negotiating framework ahead of upcoming discussions among EU leaders at the 18-19th June European Council meeting, participants stressed that the coming weeks will be crucial in determining whether the next EU budget is equipped to respond to citizens’ expectations and Europe’s growing social, economic, environmental, and geopolitical challenges.
Anna Kolesnichenko, Policy Analyst, FEPS; Serge Le Gall, Vice-Secretary for Europe, PS France
Victor Negrescu, Chair of the PES MFF Working Group and Vice-President of the European Parliament, said:
“The coming weeks will be decisive for Europe’s future budget. The PES is united in defending an ambitious long-term budget that delivers for workers, regions, and communities.
We need a strong and standalone Cohesion Policy, agriculture and fisheries, and the European Social Fund (ESF+) as key instruments for promoting social and territorial convergence across Europe for promoting social and territorial convergence across Europe. The next EU budget must provide adequate resources to deliver; we cannot do more with less.”
Participants highlighted recent progress in the European Parliament on the architecture and size of the budget, where the S&D worked to strengthen the role of regions and local authorities in the future design, programming, implementation and monitoring of EU funds.
The meeting also highlighted the need to advance the work on new genuine own resources to ensure that the future EU budget can meet Europe’s ambitions. Participants stressed that, the Union must equip itself with genuine sustainable sources of revenue to finance its priorities while ensuring repayment of Next Generation EU, including advancing the proposal put forward by the European Parliament.
The PES MFF Working Group will continue its work in the coming months to ensure that progressive priorities remain at the centre of negotiations on the future EU budget.
Online participants to the PES MFF Working Group
