Overview
- Parliament, which approved its stance Tuesday by 370–201 with 84 abstentions, wants a roughly 10% boost to the next seven‑year plan and proposes EU‑wide taxes on big tech, online gambling, and crypto.
- The Commission’s draft totals about €1.984 trillion including €165 billion for Covid‑debt repayments, while MEPs seek more than €2 trillion by adding roughly €200 billion for farmers, poorer regions, and industry and counting repayments separately.
- National capitals will decide the final size, and key contributors such as Germany and the Netherlands have already rejected a larger framework and new taxes, arguing for cuts and tighter priorities.
- EU leaders at last week’s Cyprus meeting asked the Commission to examine Parliament’s tax ideas and to study deferring about €165 billion in common‑debt repayments, as Ursula von der Leyen pressed for new EU “own resources” that the Commission estimates could raise about €66 billion a year.
- Negotiations now enter a hard‑bargaining phase with an informal goal of a political deal by end‑2026, which will shape funding for farms, regional aid, defense, Ukraine support, and competitiveness while affecting how much each country pays into the EU budget.