EU Budget

The European Commission invited 150 randomly selected people to Brussels, who advised it over the course of three weekends on what the EU budget for the next seven years should look like. The current budget operates with a sum of €1.2 trillion, or just under 30 trillion Czech crowns. Economic analyst Filip Křenek from the Institute for European Policy EUROPEUM explains this for SZ Byznys.

The National Convention on the European Union has published a new policy paper with recommendations on the topic Czechia and the Priorities of the New Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034. The document is based on the roundtable discussion held on 28 March 2025 and responds to current debates on the shape of the next EU budget in the context of increasing expenditure pressures — for example, in the areas of defence, the reconstruction of Ukraine, or competitiveness. The recommendations focus on the need to clearly define Czech priorities, take new challenges into account, and strengthen the involvement of Czech stakeholders in European programmes. They also reflect the need to streamline budgetary instruments and emphasise the importance of broader public and expert debate on the benefits of the EU budget for the Czech Republic. The expert guarantors of the roundtable were the Institute for European Policy EUROPEUM and the University of Economics in Prague.

It is mainly about supporting industry in Europe. It is about awakening some capital, enabling companies to invest in defence in the long term and to create some new capacities, which are missing at the moment. Zuzana Krulichová, analyst at EUROPEUM Institute, commented for STVR.

In his blog post, Vojtěch Freitag deals with the budget cuts in EU defence due to the pandemic crisis.

Our research fellow Vít Havelka recently published an article on the news portal Info.cz dealing with the financial resources of the European Union – particularly its own resources which aim to ensure financial independence of the EU on Member States.

Our researcher Vít Havelka was a guest on Sunday's broadcast of Evropa Plus, where he commented on the possible consequences of a dispute between Poland and Hungary and the rest of the European Union concerning the establishment of the EU budget for the rule of law. He also commented on cases in which the proposed legislative act could be applied.

The director of our institute Vladimír Bartovic was a guest of the TA3 television broadcast focusing on the new European budget proposal which has been blocked by Hungary and Poland.

Christian Kvorning Lassen, Deputy Director of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy commented on the current situation concerning negotiations of the European budget and vetos from Hungary and Poland for Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad.

Our Vít Havelka commented for the article in Deník N on the topic of the amount that the Czech Republic can expect from the European budget for the next seven years.

Even though the leaders of the states of the European Union have already been discussing the issues of the EU budget and the recovery fund many times, the final form of the agreement is still unclear. The director of the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, Vladimír Bartovic, presented possible pitfalls and obstacles within the negotiations for the Slovak television station TA3.

Aktuálně.cz cited work of our researcher Vít Havelka in its article about the attitude of Czech Prime Minister Babiš towards EU budget.

The first day of the extraordinary European Union summit on the shape of the next budget did not bring any agreement. The leaders of the member states came to Brussels with so different demands that it was not even expected. Negotiation continues and may even continue until this weekend. Our director Vladimír Bartovic commented on the summit in an interview.