Senior officials from the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament have reiterated that an ambitious long-term budget for the bloc must be backed by substantial new revenue streams. The debate over so-called own resources—new EU-level taxes—dominated the informal meeting of European affairs ministers in Dublin on Thursday and Friday.
The issue is central to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028–2034, a €2 trillion package that will shape EU spending on everything from cohesion to defence. French Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad was blunt: "The issue of own resources is an absolute prerequisite for us to adopt this budget." He added that the priority is to agree on a package of own resources that aligns with the European Commission's original proposal, stressing that these taxes would largely draw on actors outside the EU to generate the necessary funds.
Pressure has mounted since negotiations resumed after the summer break, particularly after a gathering of the so-called frugal countries in Berlin last week. The frugals—led by the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark—are pushing for a smaller overall budget and remain doubtful that own resources can deliver meaningful revenue. That scepticism is rejected by France, Spain, and key EU institutional figures who argue that the bloc's challenges demand more, not less, financial firepower.
Spain's Secretary of State for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, made the case for ambition: "The European Union must have genuine and new own resources that can help raise the level of ambition of the budget," he said, adding that the bloc should also consider rolling over the debt from the NextGenerationEU recovery fund. "The challenges are bigger than in the past. We cannot do more with less. It is time to deliver, and that involves an ambitious budget."
Deadline pressure and political calendars
The EU aims to reach a political agreement on the MFF by the end of this year, avoiding a slip into 2027—an election year for France, Italy, Poland, Finland, Greece, Spain, Slovakia, and Estonia. Irish Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne, whose country currently chairs member-state discussions in Brussels, said the message from all stakeholders is clear: "We need to reach an agreement on the next long-term EU budget by the end of the year."
European Council President António Costa, who has been touring capitals to sound out red lines, echoed that sentiment during a visit to Cyprus on Friday. "A balanced and ambitious package of so-called new own resources, the new revenue streams for the European Union, will be an essential part of an overall agreement," he said.
The European Parliament is pushing for a 10% increase in the budget's main headings and wants the repayment of the recovery fund—the loans used to finance the bloc's post-pandemic recovery—to be kept off-budget. Portuguese MEP Carla Tavares (S&D) stressed the need for new own resources to support new priorities such as competitiveness, security, and defence, alongside traditional policies like cohesion, agriculture, and fisheries.
European Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin framed the debate in existential terms: "Today, we need a transformation of the whole of the European economy. If we as Europeans want our continent to determine its own destiny also in the future, we must have a strong economy and we need to invest into our competitiveness." He has repeatedly argued that own resources are essential to power an ambitious budget that can encourage investment in both strategic and traditional sectors.
The Commission's original proposal for own resources has faced significant opposition from several member states. To break the impasse, the Parliament has floated three alternative ideas, which the Commission estimates could yield up to €11 billion a year. These include a financial transaction tax, a digital levy, and a carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Costa's tour has so far taken him to Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czechia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, and Slovenia. Next week he will meet leaders in Poland, Germany, Malta, Spain, Portugal, and Finland. Notably, he will skip Sweden, which heads to the polls on 13 September and could emerge with an even more fiscally hawkish government.
The Irish presidency is expected to table a new compromise text before mid-October, when EU leaders gather in Brussels for the European Council. The stakes are high: a failure to agree on own resources could delay the entire budget, with knock-on effects for EU investment in areas like breaking China's grip on raw materials and managing the fiscal fallout of climate change. As the bloc also grapples with Ukraine's looming budget crisis, the pressure to deliver a robust financial framework has never been greater.
