The EU is gunning to avoid farmers' wrath by keeping their funding mostly intact in its next budget, but first the plans must survive a bloody battle among capitals that kicks off with a leaders' summit next week.
On June 11, the rotating EU presidency held by Greek Cyprus presented a document to kickstart negotiations among the 27 member states, which most expect to be torn to pieces during talks set to run all year.
In July, the EU executive proposed a two-trillion-euro ($2.3 trillion) budget bazooka — its spending plan for the 27-country bloc for 2028-2034 — but many member states had already made clear that it was too high.
Ceding to demands for a smaller budget, the presidency suggested a modest cut of 2 percent — worth around 32.8 billion euros — but money for farmers and so-called cohesion funds for poorer European countries remained largely untouched.
The cut will instead come from what the European Commission had earmarked for the "competitiveness" fund seeking to help industries catch up with China and the United States, and foreign policy.
The text, however, did not include suggestions by lawmakers for an EU-wide tax on Big Tech and online gambling sites to help fund the budget, nor did it yield to France-led demands to roll over COVID-era debts.
The 27 leaders will discuss the negotiating text during the summit in Brussels next week, the first time they will hold talks with figures updated from the July 2025 proposal by the European Commission.
The final budget must be approved by the EU parliament and member states.
