The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union sealed an agreement this Saturday that guarantees the approval of the community budget for the year 2026. “The EU already has a budget for 2026. This is a budget that responds to the people’s concerns and promotes las Europe’s priorities“, the president of the European Parliament celebrated on her X account, Roberta Metsola.
Likewise, he has highlighted the importance of having accounts that reinforce key areas such as research, energy and transport networks, security, agriculture and civil protection. “In times of global instability, Europe must remain competitive, resilient and secure”he noted before thanking the teams and experts involved for “delivering on time.”
The agreement has been reached before the expiration of the conciliation period and is fixed in 192.8 billion euros assignments for commitmentslegal obligations, and in 190.1 billion euros assignments for paideffective disbursements, for the fiscal year 2026. In addition, it reincorporates the 1.3 billion euros that EU governments had cut, thus recovering the initially proposed level by the European Commission.
Reinforcement in key programs
Parliament has managed to secure additional funding for several priority programmes, adding 372.7 million euros more compared to the initial proposal of the Commission. These resources will be allocated to initiatives that seek improve the lives of citizensreinforce the competitiveness and face challenges in defense matter.
In research and infrastructure20 million euros have been added to the initiative ‘Horizon Europe’ and 23.5 million for the transport and energy networks. The educational program ‘Erasmus+’ It will also see its endowment expanded with an additional three million.
In it agricultural and environmental fieldthe program ‘LIFE’ will receive 10 million more and ‘EU4Health’ will have another three million. Likewise, the amount destined to promote European agricultural products through the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, thanks to higher than expected income and remaining funds.
The emergency response capacity is reinforced with an additional ten million for the Civil Protection Mechanism and RescEU. Ten million are also allocated to military mobility and another ten million to the border management. In a context of growing international instability, an extra 35 million euros have been approved for the South Neighborhood and East Neighborhoodeach, in addition to an additional 35 million for humanitarian aid.
The budget will have to face a unexpected cost overrun of 4.2 billion euros in the financing of funds NextGenerationEU by 2026. Parliament has assured that this increase will not affect essential programs such as Erasmus+ or EU4Health. According to a public note, these costs will be managed through the cascading mechanism designed to ensure reimbursement and protect flagship initiatives.
