The fight for the next EU budget is entering a new phase now that some numbers are finally on the table.
The spending figures, put forward by the Cyprus presidency in a “nego box”, have given capitals the clearest indication to date how a plan for nearly €2 trillion budget could be divided up.
But the figures are highly unlikely to survive intact, as securing the budget deal for 2028 to 2034 is routinely described as the EU’s most difficult political bargain, requiring, as senior officials put it, “blood on the floor”.
The battles ahead pit fiscal hawks, keen to cut their national contributions to the EU, against those countries that benefit from spending as well as defenders of traditional funding programmes, such as farm subsidies, against others pressing for new priorities such as defence, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy.
When EU leaders meet in Brussels on Friday, they are expected to reaffirm their ambition to strike a deal before the end of the year, even though the road ahead is hard and long.
