EU Parliament and Council clash over €1.52bn cuts to 2025 budget

MEPs rejected the EU Council’s proposed €1.52bn cuts to key EU programmes such as the Erasmus+ student mobility programme and the Horizon Europe research programme on Wednesday and called for more funding. 

“By cutting the budget, we will not be able to deliver [on citizens’ needs],” leading MEP Victor Negrescu (S&D/Romania) told reporters in Strasbourg, adding that the EU budget also needs some flexibility to fund unforeseen events in the coming years.   

The plenary vote confirmed the Parliament’s adopted stance for negotiations over the final 2025 budget, which are set to take place over the next three weeks, with a first meeting with Council and Commission representatives scheduled for 5 November.   

And the negotiations are likely to turn into an intense political battle between the Parliament and the Council over how to pay interest rates on post-pandemic recovery funds, which have risen sharply since the original estimates for 2021.   

“The EU budget cannot be a prisoner of interest rates by reducing our programmes,” Negrescu argued, as the Parliament called for unused funds from the EU’s multiannual budget to be used to finance citizens’ needs, instead of returning the money to the capitals as usual.   

But the Council, representing member states and favouring prudence and financial discipline, is seeking cuts to some EU programmes – which for Negrescu is an ‘austerity’ proposal.  

The Council would not be able to accept all of the Parliament’s amendments to its position if they were voted through, Péter Banai, the Hungarian minister in charge of the budget negotiations, warned MEPs on Tuesday, adding that the EU needed to make a clear distinction between “more and less important issues”.   

“Unfortunately, I haven’t heard about the source of additional financing. It’s not the Member States but the European taxpayers who pay the additional cost of additional expenditures. Do we want to increase taxes? Do we want to increase the indebtedness of the European Union?” he then asked the plenary.  

The Parliament and the Commission are closer on cohesion, agriculture, border protection, humanitarian aid and defence, but outgoing budget commissioner Johannes Hahn also acknowledged that the Parliament has proposed to enforce a large number of programmes.    

“Clear prioritisation of tabled amendments as well as concessions on both sides will be necessary and discussions should focus on those programmes where meaningful adjustments can happen,” Hahn said.  

With all three institutions’ positions clear, the Parliament, Commission and Council will have until 18 November to reach a timely deal that can be green-lit by the end of the year.   

Video editor • Aida Sanchez Alonso