The 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is the strategic instrument for achieving our common objectives and ambitious vision for the future of the EU. A more competitive, prosperous, strong and secure Europe requires sufficient funding that matches our political ambition and adapts to the new geopolitical reality.
The next MFF must continue to guarantee sufficient resources for policies arising from Treaty obligations, such as cohesion policy, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which play a fundamental role in promoting convergence, economic growth and food security. At the same time, the next MFF should help boost the EU’s strategic autonomy and further strengthen its competitiveness, the climate and digital transitions, security and defence, productivity and innovation, as well as ensuring a solid foundation for a fully integrated single market. It must also respond to new challenges, such as security risks, disruptions to global trade, the energy transition and energy security, and migration, reflecting the geopolitical situation. The volume of the MFF proposed by the Commission therefore provides the basis for discussing how to effectively address the Union’s financial needs.
As proposed by the Commission, the cohesion policy, the CAP and the CFP are the only policies facing cuts in real terms, despite the overall increase in the volume of the new MFF. These policies make a significant contribution to the EU’s key objectives, and their Treaty-based objectives remain fully relevant. Cohesion policy and the CAP are the EU policies with the greatest visibility among its citizens.
In this context, we call for an increase in the budgetary allocations for Member States under Heading 1 for Treaty-based policies.
The programming of allocations, particularly at the beginning of the programming period and during the mid-term review, must remain the sole responsibility of the Member States. The proposed steering mechanism must not affect Member States’ programming prerogatives. While shared-management instruments may be based on the proposed reference framework, it is important to emphasise that recommendations must not automatically translate into obligations, as this would run counter to the principle of shared management and the place-based approach.
To ensure the effective use of EU funds under shared management, realistic and favourable implementation conditions are essential to support long-term investments and high-quality expenditure. This requires maintaining the “N+3” decommitment rule, balanced commitment and payment profiles, as well as appropriate EU pre-financing and co-financing rates for CAP and CFP measures, cohesion policy—including Cohesion Fund investments— and Home Affairs Funds. At the same time, it is crucial to prevent cohesion policy from becoming a systematic tool for crisis management, replacing other EU instruments intended for this purpose: the proposal to earmark 10% for crises should be reduced; the reprogramming of ongoing measures under the plan should remain a voluntary option for Member States, while ensuring access to the crisis reserve and the EU Facility. Furthermore, cohesion policy should be provided with adequate and guaranteed funding for all categories of regions.
We support the approach of Heading 2 on competitiveness. With regard to the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), we recognise the central importance of the principle of excellence and the need to fully explore it across the EU. Effective and inclusive access must therefore be ensured in order to strengthen overall competitiveness throughout the European Union. To increase participation and foster capacity-building across the European Union, specific measures should be implemented to facilitate access to competitive calls for entities with less experience, with particular attention to SMEs, which form the backbone of the European Union’s economy. It is also necessary to ensure more favourable implementation conditions, such as an EU co-financing rate of 85% for Member States with a GNI per capita below the EU-27 average, for the Connecting Europe Facility, in view of its contribution to strengthening the single market and fostering EU resilience.
The Friends of Cohesion are open to discussing proposals for new own resources that effectively ease the pressure on Member States’ budgets. These discussions must be linked to the overall MFF negotiations. Any new own resource must be genuine, fair, simple and non-regressive.
The abolition of the corrections linked to the GNI-based own resource[1] is essential: there is no political or economic justification for reintroducing them on the revenue side of the EU budget. The added value of the single market and of the EU as a whole, as well as the spillover effects of the EU budget, must not be overlooked.
A more gradual NextGenerationEU repayment schedule and new joint debt to support loans (such as Catalyst Europe) should be considered viable options for financing European investments and public goods that are essential for long-term strategic autonomy, ensuring that the MFF can effectively address the Union’s evolving challenges and priorities.
The Friends of Cohesion are determined to contribute constructively towards reaching a balanced compromise that benefits the European Union as a whole. The shared aim is to achieve a budget that is both modern and capable of meeting the diverse needs of Member States and regions.
[1] Under the current Own Resources Decision, gross reductions in annual GNI-based contributions will apply until the end of 2027.
Statement signed by: Spain, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-