Council gives go-ahead to EU annual budget for 2025
Today, the Council approved the joint text on the EU’s general budget for 2025. The joint text was agreed in negotiations with the European Parliament on 16 November 2024.
Total commitments are set at €192.768,6 million and the total payments at €149.615,7 million, excluding appropriations foreseen for special instruments outside the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 (MFF).
€800,5 million have been kept available this year under the expenditure ceilings of the current MFF, allowing the EU to react to unforeseeable needs.
I’m glad we have agreed on the EU’s budget for 2025. Next year’s budget will allow us to focus on the EU’s priority areas, while ensuring a prudent and realistic approach to spending taxpayers’ money. We have kept enough financial margin to respond to unforeseen circumstances, taking into account the current economic and geopolitical context.
Péter Banai, Hungarian Minister of State and chief Council negotiator for the 2025 EU budget
Commitments are legally-binding promises to spend money on activities that are implemented over several financial years.
Payments cover expenditure arising from commitments entered into the EU budget during the current or preceding financial years.
The EU budget for 2025 amounts to € 199.438,4 million in total commitments and €155.209,3 million in total payments when including the appropriations foreseen for special instruments outside the MFF.
Next steps
The adoption of the budget will be declared by the European Parliament once it has also approved the joint text. The European Parliament and the Council both have 14 days to formally approve the agreement reached on 16 November.
Background
The Commission, in its initial draft budget for 2025, formally adopted on 12 July 2024, set total commitments at €193.046,9 million and the total payments at €147.090,5 million, excluding appropriations foreseen for special instruments outside the MFF .
The Council, in its position adopted on 13 September 2024, set the total commitments at €191.527,0 million and the total payments at €146.214,6 million, excluding appropriations foreseen for special instruments outside the MFF.
The European Parliament, in its amendments adopted on 23 October 2024, set total commitments at €194.282,3 million and total payments at €147.895,5 million, excluding appropriations foreseen for special instruments outside the MFF.
On 10 October 2024, the Commission adopted an amending letter to the draft general budget that decreases the level of commitments by €303 million and increases the level of payments by €2.657 million.
After the European Parliament adopted its amendments to the draft budget, the Council stated its disagreement with the Parliament’s proposals. Consequently a meeting of the Conciliation Committee was convened. The Council and the European Parliament reached agreement on the EU’s annual budget for 2025 on 16 November 2024. The budget was adopted today by qualified majority within the Council.
The Conciliation Committee is composed of the representatives of the 27 member states and 27 members of the European Parliament, with the Commission acting as an honest broker working towards reconciling the positions of the two branches of the Budgetary Authority.
This is the fifth annual budget under the EU’s long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. The 2025 budget is complemented by actions to support the COVID-19 recovery under NextGenerationEU, the EU’s plan to recover from the pandemic.
