The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mitsola, announced on Saturday the approval of the group’s budget for the year 2026, after the Council and the European Parliament concluded an agreement that strengthens areas such as research, energy networks, transportation, security, agriculture and civil protection.
The European representative said in a post on her account on the social media network
The agreement, reached before the deadline for the conciliation period, sets the total amount of allocations for liabilities – legal obligations – at 192.8 billion euros for 2026, and sets allocations for payments – payments that have already been disbursed – at 190.1 billion euros for the same period.
In addition, the preliminary agreement reintegrates the €1.3 billion reduced by EU governments, thus restoring the level initially proposed by the Commission for commitment allocations.
Increase in key EU programmes
The Parliament secured additional funding for several priority EU programmes, managing to add €372.7 million more than the Commission’s initial proposal, and directing these resources towards initiatives aimed at improving citizens’ lives, enhancing competitiveness and meeting defense challenges, pending the publication of detailed figures.
In the field of research and infrastructure, MEPs received an additional 20 million euros for the Horizon Europe initiative – research and innovation – and 23.5 million euros for transport and energy networks, in addition to expanding the allocations for the Erasmus + education program by three million.
In the field of agriculture and environment, the “LIFE” program was strengthened by 10 million programs and the “EU4Health” program by another 3 million. In addition, the amount allocated for the promotion of European agricultural products under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund has been increased by €105 million thanks to higher-than-expected revenues and remaining funds.
To strengthen emergency response capacity, Parliament approved an additional ten million for the Civil Protection Mechanism and the RescEU and granted another ten million for military mobility.
In the same vein, reinforcements of the same amount were guaranteed for border management. In the context of increasing international instability, it also promoted an additional €35 million for the Southern Neighborhood and the Eastern Neighborhood – each – and an additional €35 million for humanitarian aid was promised.
The EU will also face an unexpected additional cost of $4.2 billion to fund NextGenerationEU funds for 2026, with the assurance that this increase will not affect core programs such as Erasmus+ or EU4Health mentioned above.
Parliament explained in a general note that these additional costs will be managed according to a cascading mechanism designed to ensure reimbursement and protect key initiatives.
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