Ripe for Reform – What’s in the EU Budget Proposal and What Should Come Next

The next EU budget must square a near-impossible circle: manage the phase-out of NextGenerationEU funds, cover €24 billion a year in debt repayments, and respond to mounting demands on competitiveness, resilience, and defence. The Commission has now put forward a surprisingly ambitious proposal – but one that is also politically fragile. If the EU wants to seize this rare chance for meaningful budget reform, the upcoming negotiations should be guided by four principles:

• defend the shift toward common investment priorities;
• lock in the proposed flexibility;
• reform agricultural and cohesion policy within the framework of thenew single plans
• accept that real reform won’t happen withoutmore money on the table.