MEP Victor Negrescu, S&D shadow rapporteur for the EU budget for 2024, backs the proposal to spend more money on defence in next year’s EU budget.

”The war has made <<business as usual>> regarding EU defence policy obsolete”, Negrescu said.

He added that the next year’s EU budget will focus on the most pressing EU issues, such as energy, migration, security and defence.

In early June, the European Commission proposed an annual EU budget of €189.3 billion for 2024. The budget will be complemented by an estimated €113 billion in payments for grants under NextGenerationEU, the EU’s post-pandemic recovery instrument.

To address the EU’s various priorities, the Commission proposed to allocate €1.6 billion to address defence challenges, of which €638 million to support capability development and research under the European Defence Fund (EDF), €241 million to support Military Mobility, €260 million for the new short-term defence instrument (EDIRPA) and €343 million to support the production of ammunition.

About a month later, Member States agreed their position on the draft EU budget for 2024. In total, the Council’s position for next year’s budget amounts to €187 billion in commitments and €141,16 billion in payments.

To ensure that the 2024 EU budget enters into force on time, the two co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, need to agree and adopt the final form by the end of this year, given that budgetary pressures will materialise in 2024.