Europäischer Rechnungshof - European Court of Auditors
EU budget for 2028-2034: auditors’ opinion on spending rules and revenue streams
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Press release
Luxembourg, 28 January 2026
EU budget for 2028-2034: auditors’ opinion on spending rules and revenue streams
Today, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has issued two opinions on the European Commission’s draft EU laws that will govern the bloc’s spending and revenue from 2028 to 2034 once they have been agreed by EU lawmakers. The auditors provide the European Parliament and the Council of the EU with independent expert advice on the proposed new rules on the design and ceilings for the next seven-year budget and on the new system of EU own resources for financing the budget. For the first time, the budget includes revenue based on non-collected e-waste and tobacco duties, and contributions from firms with an annual turnover of over €100 million. It also includes the previously proposed revenues based on the carbon border adjustment mechanism and the emissions trading system.
On 16 July 2025, as part of its proposals for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework (MFF), the Commission proposed a regulation for the new MFF and a new system for the EU’s own resources. The EU’s executive has put forward a seven-year budget totalling €2 trillion (at current prices), an increase of 59 % compared to the current MFF. To finance the increased budget, it proposes five new own resources, bringing the total to nine. The auditors single out a number of important points for EU lawmakers to consider in their upcoming negotiations.
In terms of spending:
- The ceilings for the proposed MFF are 59 % higher than those for the current MFF, reaching 1.26 % of the EU’s gross national income (GNI). Nevertheless, excluding repayments for the EU’s pandemic recovery scheme (NGEU), the amounts expressed as a percentage of the EU’s gross national income (GNI) for the two periods will be increasing from 1.13 % to a proposed 1.15 %.
- The Commission proposes that the share of the EU budget that it manages together with the member states should be reduced by 20 percentage points. However, the resulting significant increase in the Commission’s direct and indirect management may pose administrative challenges, and may also affect the geographical distribution of spending.
- The proposal intends to simplify the budgetary framework by reducing the number of programmes from 52 to 16. However, the actual extent of simplification for the final recipients of EU money will depend on how the implementation rules and control arrangements are designed and implemented in practice. At the same time, the proposed simplification of the flexibility instruments still contains uncertainties.
- The Commission’s proposal provides the EU budget with better protection against shifts in inflation, but the possible consequences will need to be taken into account when taking a final decision on the adjustment methodology.
In terms of revenue:
- The Commission estimates that the proposed changes will generate an additional average of €58 billion each year for the EU budget over the course of the 2028-2034 MFF. Although the Commission believes that the EU’s new own resources will reduce the burden on member states, the auditors found that 77 % of the additional annual revenue will continue to be financed from national budgets. To support the financing of new and existing priorities, total annual national contributions will actually rise by 48 % in the next MFF – from €140.7 billion to €208.5 billion.
- The proposal achieves the goal of reducing the share of the GNI-based own resource. The share of GNI contributions in financing the annual EU budget is actually projected to decrease to an average of 55 % compared to 67 % for the current MFF, although it is projected to increase in absolute terms. As this own resource maintains its balancing role, any shortfall in the other sources of revenue will be offset by an increase in GNI contributions.
- The auditors welcome the proposal to abolish the correction mechanisms which reduce some member states’ contributions that are based on GNI, value-added tax (VAT), and unrecycled plastics, as it will make these resources simpler and more transparent. By contrast, they warn that despite some simplification in the way some individual own resources are calculated, with five new proposed revenue streams, the own resources system would be more complex, and levying a financial fee on companies might go against EU competitiveness goals. In addition, the own resources ceilings should be reassessed following the agreement of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine.
Background information
The MFF provides for the financing of programmes in all EU policy areas. The current 2021-2027 MFF is worth €1.2 trillion. According to the Commission, the current system of own resources and its increasing dependence on GNI contributions will reach its limits in view of budgetary strains in the member states. At the same time, financing needs will increase, driven by the need to repay NGEU loans as from 2028.
Today’s opinions are part of a series on MFF proposals: the ECA has recently issued opinions on the proposed European Competitiveness Fund and Horizon Europe, and will publish further MFF opinions in February and March. The Council of the EU and the European Parliament have asked for the auditors’ views before they themselves examine the proposals. The opinions are available on the ECA’s website in English; other EU languages will follow shortly. The Commission proposal can only be understood in full when important supporting regulations have also been published.
Related links
Opinion 03/2026 on the MFF Regulation
Opinion 04/2026 on the EU’s new own resources
Press contact
ECA press office: press@eca.europa.eu
Damijan Fišer: (+352) 621 552 224