The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenhas managed to quell the insurrection of the European Chamber against his proposal multi-year budget of the EU for 2028-2034 – which threatened to derail the negotiation before it even began – by offering a package of low-scope concessions.
“The proposals are a good step forward and the process will continue“, the president of the European Parliament has assured, Roberta Metsolaafter a three-way virtual meeting with Von der Leyen and the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksenwhose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
“Now the proposals are clear and we have a clear roadmap to follow“Von der Leyen congratulated himself, that has thus closed the crisis. After the meeting this Monday, the European Parliament has given up approving this week a resolution against the budget plan, the trump card with which it was trying to subdue the president.
In the end, MEPs will limit themselves to debating Von der Leyen’s proposals in plenary session this Wednesday in Brussels, but no opinion will be voted on.
In essence, what the European Parliament has done is to propose a pulse to the community Executive, but also to the national governmentsto achieve more powers in budget negotiation and to be able to intervene from an early phase.
According to the Treaties, It is the heads of State and Government of the 27 who approve unanimously the multiannual financial framework, something that is scheduled to happen at the end of 2026. The European Parliament only intervenes at the end of the entire process to give its consent (or overturn the previous agreement).
However, Parliament now intends to amend the new budget architecture that Von der Leyen has proposed for the period 2028-2034, which centralizes the management of structural, agricultural and migration funds in the Member States.
All these aids are merged into a single national envelope for each countrythe spending of which will largely be at the discretion of governments.
This is a radical change that takes away from autonomous communities and regions a good part of their ability to decide how aid is distributed. And, furthermore, blurs the essence of two emblematic EU policies: the common agricultural policy and the cohesion policy.
In a letter sent at the end of October, the leaders of the political groups of the ‘grand coalition’ that supports Von der Leyen (popular, socialists, liberals and greens) rejected this renationalization of European funds and demanded reestablishing the independence of the common agricultural policy, as well as a greater role for regional and local entities.
However, National governments do support this new architecture because it frees them from many bureaucratic burdens and gives them much more room for maneuver when deciding how to spend European funds.
Hence, Von der Leyen has resisted modifying her proposals until the end. Only the threat of a negative resolution from the European Parliament has led him to offer minor concessions, which in any case are more symbolic than real.
In a letter addressed this Sunday to Metsola and Frederiksen, the president first proposes compulsorily reserving a part of the money from the national envelopes not only for direct agricultural payments (as contemplated in her original proposal), but also for rural development policies. The objective is to “reinforce the identity” of the common agricultural policy.
Secondly, Von der Leyen proposes introducing ‘regional control’ to fully guarantee the participation of regional authorities in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of spending plans, as well as your right to communicate directly with the Commission. Finally, the German offers to give more powers to the European Parliament during the negotiation and supervision of these national plans.
These minimum transfers have been enough to appease the European Parliament for the moment, although the socialist group is still asking for more changes.
However, the real battle is the one that faces Germany and the ‘frugal’who demand more cuts in the EU budget, against the main beneficiaries of European funds, such as Spain, who see Von der Leyen’s proposals as insufficient.
In total, the multiannual budget proposed by the German company amounts to 2 billion euros for seven years, a figure equivalent to 1.26% of the community GDP.
If the payment of interest on the debt assumed with the Next Generation funds is deducted, it remains at 1.15%, a very slight increase compared to the 1.13% of the current financial framework.
The new financial framework multiplies defense spending by five (up to 131,000 million euros in seven years) and cuts agricultural and cohesion funds, which are the most important for countries like Spain.