The 2028-2034 MFF negotiations

The Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF, is the EU’s long-term budget. It decides how much the EU can spend, and on what, for a seven-year period. The next one, currently under negotiation, will run from 2028 to 2034 and will shape the EU’s funding landscape for years to come. What happens in the MFF negotiations is important for civil society organisations and communities in Ireland, many of which receive funding via different funding instruments that are agreed as part of the EU’s long-term budget negotiations. This includes funding for human rights and citizen participation, international development and humanitarian response, support to refugees, migrants and integration, cultural and media programmes, youth education, environment, social protection, the just transition and more.

The overall funding envelopes, and the legislation that underpins them, matters not only for funding levels, but for how funding works in practice. Ring-fenced funding, clear objectives and strong values-based language make a real difference to whether civil society organisations can apply for funding and deliver meaningful work.

The European Commission published its proposal for the 2028 to 2034 MFF in July 2025, with a proposed budget of €1.76 trillion. The proposed budget represents 1.26% of the EU’s GNI, but in real terms only represents an increase of 0.02% GNI on the current MFF. The Commission’s MFF proposal is divided across four main “headings” and sets out a maximum amount of spending allowed, or a ceiling, for each “heading”.

More importantly, the Commission has outlined a major restructuring of the budget, proposing that over 50 existing programmes be merged into 16 large funding instruments. The Commission also proposes giving Member States more discretion through new National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs), allowing national governments greater influence over how EU money is spent, with the risk of sidelining local and regional authorities. Negotiations have ramped up since late 2025, with many Member States pushing for them to be concluded by the end of 2026, setting significant expectations for the Cyprus and Irish Presidencies of the Council of the EU to drive the negotiations forward.

How will the MFF be negotiated?

The MFF Regulation is adopted under a special legislative procedure. This requires unanimous agreement from the Council of the EU to adopt the overall MFF Regulation, essentially the overall financial budget for the EU. While the European Parliament must give its consent, it cannot amend the MFF Regulation. However, the specific regulations or sectoral programmes that makeup the overall MFF must be adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure, with the Council and the Parliament on an equal footing.

Member States negotiate in the Council. This is where unanimity applies, and where even one government can block progress. Much of the real work happens quietly at ambassador level in COREPER II, where national positions are negotiated and compromises tested, and politically in the General Affairs Council (GAC), which steers the overall direction of the MFF and prepares decisions for EU leaders, long before they appear for the final deal.

The European Parliament review of the MFF is being led by the two co-rapporteurs: Siegfried Mureşan (EPP, Romania) and  Carla Tavares (S&D, Portugal) from the Committee on Budgets (BUDG). The Committee on Budgets is one of the ‘key players’ in the current negotiations process. The two co-rapporteurs have produced a draft, which will serve as the basis for discussions within the Parliament before it adopts its position in a plenary session in May 2026. The Parliament’s co-rapporteurs are calling for a significantly strengthened budget of €1.93 trillion, or 1.38% of EU gross national income (GNI) – a 10% increase on the Commission’s proposal. The Parliament is also concerned about the merging of different policies in one plan per Member State under the proposed NRPPs, as well as ‘the Commission approach on additional flexibility’, which according to the Parliament could sacrifice transparency, accountability, and undermine the budgetary oversight role.

In December 2025, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU produced a draft first “negotiating box”, which sets out the key issues that will be discussed and addressed by the Council in the process of negotiating the MFF. Since then, 2026 has been busy, with key negotiating phases having already commenced, and will continue to ramp up.

Key upcoming dates:

24-26 February 2026: General Affairs Council meetings and Cohesion meetings: Likely political exchanges on budget negotiations.

25-26 February 2026: BUDG Committee next ordinary meeting, in which the Parliament will continue to consolidate its negotiation strategy before the formal adoption of its position.

10 March 2026: Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting: To discuss Budget/MFF ceilings and expenditure categories.

16-17 March 2026: BUDG Committee ordinary meeting. Most likely to continue detailed work on the MFF (2028-2034) interim report, including preparing opinions from other committees, finalising amendment discussions, and building toward the committee’s planned adoption of the interim report on 8 April 2026.

8 April 2026: BUDG Committee to adopt MFF interim report on the overall EU budget, after having received opinions from a range of EP committees, which will set its negotiating position with Member States.

25-29 May 2026: Plenary vote in Parliament in Strasbourg to adopt interim budget report. After this, the Parliament’s position is fixed and engagement becomes much harder.

June 2026: The Cyprus Presidency intends to secure a “partial general approach with indicative figures by June 2026” as groundwork for a compromise between member states”.

6–7 May, 3–4 June and 15 July 2026: Additional plenary BUDG meetings throughout 2026. Additional committee meetings are planned to maintain Parliament’s preparatory work on MFF files and associated budgetary deliberations during the negotiation period.