Earlier in July, the European Commission fired the starting gun on a 30-month marathon negotiation on the EU’s next seven-year budget. Brussels has proposed a nearly €2tn common spending pot it claims faces up to Europe’s “new and emerging challenges”. Does it?
First, the good. Brussels has taken some steps towards reallocating funds to today’s priorities: infrastructure, defence, security, research and energy and industrial resilience. The exact numbers are already the subject of fights, even inside the commission itself. But just as important is the lack of controversy around the methodological changes to the budget.
The commission rolls agricultural subsidies and transfers to poorer regions into new national plans, to be proposed by governments, approved by the EU and checked against delivery to release funding. This marks a major shift, modelled on the post-pandemic recovery fund. Grumbles can be heard about insufficient funding and a power grab by national governments from local officials. But not about the basic principle of cash in return for demonstrable, mutually agreed reforms.