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Parliament’s reading of 2027 EU budget
Parliament's reading of the 2027 EU budget
Sidonia Mazur, Members' Research Service
Summary
During the October II plenary session, Parliament is expected to amend the Council's position on the draft EU budget for 2027. The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) voted to reverse all reductions the Council applied to the Commission's draft. Moreover, BUDG proposes targeted increases for Parliament's priorities, by €1.17 billion above the Commission's original 2027 draft budget. It calls for financing the EU debt repayment without cutting into expenditure on programmes.
Statement of purpose
Budgetary procedure: 2026/0196 (BUD); Committee responsible: BUDG; Rapporteur: Nils Ušakovs (S&D, Latvia) for Section III – European Commission, and Michalis Hadjipantela (EPP, Cyprus) for other sections. For updates on the 2027 budget, see the EPRS website.
Budgetary procedure for 2027
On 9 July 2026, the Commission adopted the 2027 draft budget (DB 2027) with €200 billion in commitments and €212 billion in payments, including special instruments. On 28 April, Parliament had adopted its guidelines for the 2027 budget, calling for 'a predictable, robust, citizen‑centred, efficient and investment‑oriented EU budget'. On 4 September, the Council adopted its position on DB 2027, proposing to cut commitments by €1 billion and payments by €0.5 billion. On 9 October, the Commission published Amending letter No 1/2027, lowering expenditure in DB 2027 by €365.3 million in commitments and by €426.8 million in payments.
Parliament's priorities for the 2027 budget
On 5 October, the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) adopted amendments to the Council's position with a broad majority, and on 12 October it adopted an explanatory motion for a resolution with 24 votes in favour, 8 against and 2 abstentions. BUDG sets the overall level of commitments at €194 billion and payments at €203.3 billion under MFF headings.
BUDG insists that 65 +% of the Recovery Instrument (EURI) cost overruns should be financed from the decommitment compartment of EURI. BUDG calls for full mobilisation of the Ukraine Support Loan (USL) Instrument at €1.1 billion, to cover the borrowing costs of the USL. In both cases, BUDG argues for the liquidity management costs to be isolated into new budget lines, fully financed by the EURI and USL instruments.
BUDG voted increases to Parliament's priorities by €1.17 billion above the Commission's draft budget:
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€376.7 million for Heading 1, inter alia for the Connecting Europe Facility (€260.5 million), Horizon Europe (€63 million) and the Single Market programme (€31.6 million);
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€275.1 million for Subheading 2B, inter alia the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (€80 million), the EU4Health programme (€50 million) and Erasmus+ (€96 million);
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€182.5 million for Heading 3, inter alia the European Agriculture Guarantee Fund (€85 million), including support for young farmers (€20 million), and LIFE programme (€85 million);
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€72.9 million for Heading 4, in particular for the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) (€40 million) and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (€20 million);
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€66.3 million for Heading 5, for example for Military Mobility (€20 million);
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€139 million for Heading 6, in particular for the Southern Neighbourhood (€60 million), Eastern Neighbourhood (€40 million) and humanitarian aid (€40 million);
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€0.5 million for Heading 7 for the European Anti‑Fraud Office (OLAF).
During its October II plenary part‑session, Parliament is expected to vote on amendments to the Council's position and thus adopt its reading of the Union budget for 2027. The next step in the procedure would be the convening of the Conciliation Committee. The 21‑day conciliation period would last until 16 November 2026, with the first conciliation meeting scheduled for 3 November.
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