The Council today adopted three legislative acts related to the revision of the EU multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, giving the final go-ahead for the package, which is aimed at reinforcing the EU long-term budget in a targeted manner and addressing new challenges, such as the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The package includes a regulation amending the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, as well as regulations establishing the Ukraine Facility and the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP).
Revision of the EU multiannual financial framework
The amendments to the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 reflect the agreement reached by EU leaders on 1 February 2024 and reinforce the EU long-term budget in a limited number of priority areas.
In total, €64.6 billion of additional funding will be made available to address new and emerging challenges facing the EU and to meet the EU’s legal obligations which could otherwise no longer be accommodated within the current budgetary ceilings.
The additional funding covers support for Ukraine, migration and the external dimension, investments in critical technologies as part of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, Next Generation EU interest payments and emergency aid in situations such as natural disasters and humanitarian crises in the EU and worldwide.
It will be distributed as follows:
- €50 billion for the Ukraine Facility (€17 billion in grants and €33 billion in loans)
- €2 billion for migration and border management
- €7.6 billion for the neighbourhood and the world
- €1.5 billion for the European Defence Fund under the new STEP instrument
- €2 billion for the flexibility instrument
- €1.5 billion for the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve
To reduce the impact on national budgets, a portion of this funding, totalling €10.6 billion, will be covered by budgetary redeployments.
Ukraine Facility
The Ukraine Facility will be a new dedicated instrument to support Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction and modernisation, while supporting its efforts to carry out reforms as part of its accession path to the EU.
It will pool the EU’s budget support to Ukraine into one single instrument, providing coherent, predictable and flexible support for the period 2024-2027 to Ukraine, adapted to the unprecedented challenges of supporting a country at war.
Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform
The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform will mobilise investments in the fields of digital and deep tech, cleantech and biotech, with the overall aim of strengthening the EU’s sovereignty and long-term competitiveness in these critical technologies.
Through a mix of financial incentives and measures to facilitate the financing of projects, it will leverage funding in support of critical technologies under existing EU programmes and funds, including cohesion policy funds, InvestEU, Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Next steps
The three regulations will now be signed and published in the EU Official Journal in the next days.
The amendments to the regulation establishing the multiannual financial framework will enter into force on the day of its publication and apply, with retroactive effect, from 1 January 2024. The regulations establishing the Ukraine Facility and the STEP will enter into force on the day following their publication.
Exceptional support could be provided very soon after the entry into force of the Ukraine Facility regulation, subject to conditions to be agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission and Ukraine.
Background
Following the European Parliament’s consent, the Council adopted the current EU long-term budget, or multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, in December 2020. Since then, the EU has faced unprecedented and unexpected challenges, from the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to an acceleration in inflation and interest rates and challenges related to migration. This has put the EU budget under pressure.
The Commission presented the proposals for amending the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 and for establishing the Ukraine Facility and the STEP on 20 June 2023 as part of a package of measures linked to the mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework.
The package was completed on 8 November 2023 by a proposal for a regulation on establishing a Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans. The Council and the European Parliament have yet to agree on their respective negotiating mandates on this proposal.