Nicosia: Cyprus Presidency will prepare the first proposal with figures for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 (MFF) and submit it to be discussed at the June's European Council Summit, President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said during the Press Conference, following the Informal Summit held in Nicosia, under the Cyprus' Presidency of the Council of the EU.
According to Cyprus News Agency, during the meeting, the leaders discussed the MFF, focusing on new own resources, with the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, emphasizing that lower spending capacity "would mean less Europe, exactly when more Europe is needed."
The MFF is one of the most important and demanding dossiers inherited by the Cypriot Presidency. The goal of the Cypriot Presidency during the first quarter of 2026, which was achieved, was to complete the technical work and ensure a timely transition of negotiations to the political level, guided by maximizing its contribution to the mandate given by leaders at the European Council last December, to reach a political agreement by the end of 2026.
"We have a collective responsibility to reach an agreement by the end of the year," Costa noted. "Only in this way can we ensure that the next framework will be put into effect from the beginning of 2028," he added, clarifying that "we will return to the matter in June, based on the first proposal with figures to be prepared by the Cypriot Presidency."
President Nikos Christodoulides remarked that "we cannot fund the security and prosperity of the future, with the tools of the past. To give substance to our sovereignty we must have the financial backbone to support it." He noted that during the meeting, the leaders focused on how to match the Union's growing ambitions with the appropriate level of resources.
"As Presidency, we are ready to do the difficult work, we have led significant groundwork, bringing positions around key issues. This work provides a solid basis for our negotiations, to further accelerate and intensify our work in the coming weeks, with the aim of presenting a negotiable box at June's European Council. Our objective is clear, to succeed to deliver a mature file to our partners to move steadily to a political agreement, by the end of 2026."
On her behalf, the President of the European Commission stated that the next EU budget is central to the EU's competitiveness agenda. She provided an example, noting that InvestEU has had 26 billion euros as guarantees, triggering 300 billion of private investment.
Von der Leyen mentioned that with the Budget, the EU can fund strategic priorities at a real European scale and support reforms that make Europe a better place to invest. "What we discussed today is that we must be very lucid about the budgetary equation," she said, noting that from 2028 onwards, the European Union will start repaying NextGenerationEU.
According to the Commission's Presidency, the MFF will also work towards funding the Commission's new priorities: competitiveness, AI, defense, security, and energy. "We want to sustain funding for the European Union's long-standing priorities," she said, noting that "we want to keep the national contributions in check," adding that new own resources are indispensable.
"We need new own resources. That was the discussion that we had today. I presented the different elements of the package of the new own resources," she said, adding that it's either higher national contributions or it's lower spending capacity. "Lower spending capacity would mean less Europe, exactly when more Europe is needed."
She mentioned that the Commission proposed a comprehensive package of new own resources, a package that is diversified, linked to the Union's policies, capable of generating stable revenues over time. "We think this is the only credible way to match Europe's priorities and Europe's needs."
The President of the Commission also referred to the signing, earlier today, of the 'One Europe, One Market' roadmap, among the Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU, noting that it is a joint political vision for the completion of the single market by the end of 2027.
"Signing this roadmap was hard work to get there, but this is not the end. It's the start of even better and more and hard work to deliver."
On the same issue, President Christodoulides said that "we are serving our overall goal on enhancing competitiveness. We can be more independent only if we are more competitive."
He noted that the roadmap signed is comprehensive, with concrete timelines of delivery and constitutes "a strong signal for our collective determination to boost European competitiveness. The Cyprus Presidency has acted with urgency and vision on this agenda and we continue tirelessly, building consensus to advance a stronger single market," he concluded.