site.bta2025 EU Budget of Nearly EUR 200 Bln Approved by European Parliament

The MEPs approved the European Union budget for 2025 on Wednesday during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The 2025 EU budget will amount to EUR 199.4 billion and includes EUR 155.21 billion  in total payments.

The difference between the amount of budget appropriations for commitments and budget appropriations for payments is due to the fact that multiannual budget appropriations are used for some measures implemented directly by the Commission. They are mainly related to measures to promote the sales of agricultural products and to measures for strategic planning and policy coordination, according to the European Commission website.

The new EU budget also includes nearly EUR 72 billion from the NextGenerationEU financial instrument, which was created at the proposal of the European Commission with the aim to finance the recovery of EU countries from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is a key element of NextGenerationEU. It provides loans and grants to support reforms and investments undertaken by EU member states. In order to access the Recovery and Resilience Facility funding, EU countries, including Bulgaria, submit national recovery and resilience plans.

The European Parliament announced earlier that in negotiations with EU countries it had achieved an increase in funding of EUR 230.7 million compared to the initial draft budget presented by the European Commission.
The additional funding allocated includes EUR 62 million for Erasmus+. This is the EU programme for the support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget for 2025 will amount to nearly EUR 5 billion. 

Another EUR 25 million was envisaged for the Horizon Europe programme, which funds research and innovation. Its budget for 2025 will amount to EUR 12.76 billion.

The European Union budget for 2025 is focused on policies related to the fight against negative climate change, health, humanitarian aid and border management of the European Union. It is also aimed at covering the costs of disbursing funds provided under the plan known as the European Union Recovery Instrument.

Additional funding is intended for support of Ukraine, for investments in critical technologies as part of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), interest payments under the NextGenerationEU instrument. Additional funds are also provided for financing emergency aid in the event of natural disasters and humanitarian crises in EU countries and beyond.