Council gives go-ahead to EU annual budget for 2024

Brussels: The Council Monday approved the joint text on the EU’s general budget for 2024. The joint text has been agreed in negotiations with the European Parliament on 11 November. Total commitments are set at €189 385,4 million and total payments at €142 630,3 million.

€360 million have been kept available under the expenditure ceilings of the current multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, allowing the EU to react to unforeseeable needs.

I am glad we have come to an agreement on next year’s budget. It will give us the means to focus on the EU’s priority areas, while keeping enough financial leeway to respond to unforeseen circumstances. It also ensures a realistic approach, taking into account the current economic and geopolitical context, the interests of taxpayers and the need to cater for new challenges that may arise in 2024.

Next year’s budget strongly reflects the EU’s main priorities, including economic recovery and the green and digital transitions and reacts to the currently difficult geopolitical context.

Commitments are legally-binding promises to spend money on activities that are implemented over several years.

Payments cover expenditure arising from commitments entered into during the current or preceding years.

The adoption of the budget will be declared by the European Parliament once it has also approved the joint text. The Council and the Parliament each have a period of fourteen days from 11 November 2023 to approve it.

The Commission proposed the initial draft budget for 2024 on 7 June 2023, and amended it through a letter dated 9 October 2023. In the meantime, on 5 September 2023, the Council adopted its position on the EU budget 2024, and the European Parliament proposed amendments to the Council’s position on the draft budget on 18 October 2023.

Since the Council stated its disagreement with the Parliament’s proposals, a meeting of the Conciliation Committee was convened. The Council and the European Parliament reached agreement on the EU’s annual budget for 2024 on 11 November 2023.

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 towards reconciling the positions of the two branches of the Budgetary Authority.

This is the fourth annual budget under the long-term EU budget, the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. The 2024 budget is complemented by actions to support the COVID-19 recovery under NextGenerationEU, the EU’s plan to recover from the pandemic.