Shortly before the deadline expires, the EU Parliament and member states agree on a new EU budget for next year. The current crises play a special role in this.
In the coming year, the EU wants to spend more money on the energy transition and on dealing with the consequences of the Ukraine war. Shortly before midnight on Monday evening, negotiators from the EU Parliament and the member states agreed that around 186 billion euros can be budgeted for in 2023, as Czech Deputy Finance Minister Jiří Georgiev announced. If they hadn’t reached an agreement before midnight, the EU Commission would have had to present a new budget proposal.
EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola welcomed the agreement. “Now is the time to boost our economy. To stay united,” Metsola wrote on Twitter shortly after the agreement.
More than one billion euros from the community budget are to be spent on the current crises, including the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the further recovery from the Corona crisis, according to the Budget Committee in Parliament.
Basically, the negotiations were about the question of how much money can be planned for 2022. The EU Parliament had called for 187.3 billion euros to be made available next year. The EU states wanted to provide a little less – 183.95 billion. That was just below the proposal by EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn of 185.6 billion euros.
In order for the budget for 2023 to be implemented, the agreement still has to be confirmed in a plenary session of Parliament and by a Council of Ministers. However, this is considered a formality.
