The next European multiannual budget is crucial for Europe’s future. At a moment when Europe’s democratic model is challenged from all sides, it is crucial that the way the budget is designed, the way it is allocated, the way it is spent and the way it is evaluated are all grounded in democratic and inclusive practices.
The Commission proposal of a budget of 2 trillion euros sounds ambitious, but in real terms it is roughly the same as the previous multiannual financial framework, and moreover this amount is likely to be cut in negotiations with member states. A first question to ask is whether given the increasing demands on the European Union in a hostile world this is adequate, and how much citizens have a say over this.
The second question is who gets a say in how this budget is spent?
The process of discussing this multiannual financial framework has been more participative than in the past, because of the innovation of a citizens panel on this topic held in early 2025, involving 150 randomly selected citizens. Citizens Takeover Europe welcomes this innovation as a basis to build on.
Last month on 06th February, the Commission held the feedback session following up on the Citizens’ Panel on the New European Budget, which generated a report with 23 concrete recommendations. This feedback session could have been‘the moment of truth when citizens were told how their proposals would be implemented within the Commission’s proposal. At the same time the panel participants had the opportunity to ask critical questions to the EU officials directly, in this case the representatives of DG BUDG.
The Feedback session however only briefly touched on the implementation of the specific recommendations the Panel participants co-created, and stayed for the most part far from the practical level. Instead, the session rather allowed DG BUDG to present the MFF on their own terms.
Since the original Conference on the Future of Europe (COFOE) which introduced citizen panels during the mandate of the previous Commission, CTOE has expressed concern that the Citizens’ Panels and COFOE itself have been dominated by the institutions of the Union, and the facilitators, and highly constrained in what citizens can express. It remains hard for citizens’ views if not in agreement with the dominant agenda to be expressed in the final findings, with vague language meaning that it is too easy for the Commission to say it is following up without getting into specifics.
In relation to participatory democracy one participant in the recent hearing asked, whether citizens’ input would be furthermore integrated during the negotiation and implementation phases of the MFF, or whether it will remain within the development stage. The DG BUDG representative used the term “indirect democracy” and stressed the importance of voting in national and European elections. Hence it became clear that the participatory element related to the MFF is now finished. This is far from adequate follow-up – any participatory process needs clear and ongoing accountability.
The Commission’s proposal for the modalities of the next budget is based on national plans, following the example of the way recovery funds following the Covid-19 pandemic were structured. There remain major questions about the effectiveness of the recovery fund model, which should be properly evaluated prior to being used as a model, and major questions about transparency and equity in the way the money was allocated by national governments. Greater democratic participation, oversight, and evaluation of national plans by parliaments, by civil society, by citizens is a necessary component of this model increasing trust and legitimacy as well as increasing the efficiency and coherency of spending.
Moreover, channelling money through national capitals must not come at the expense of regions and cities – which are effective counterpowers to national governments, are closer to citizens and where citizens can see concretely how EU money is spent. Cohesion funds are a major factor in reducing territorial inequalities in Europe, something that the Citizens panel also emphasised, together with desire for the inclusion of programmes directed at education, health, energy & digital sovereignty and youth access to the labour market.
Negotiations over the multiannual financial framework will continue for at least the next year. Ireland has in many ways been a pioneer of greater citizen participation and the role of citizens assemblies, and as it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union we hope to see renewed initiatives both to follow up on citizen input that has already been given to the process, to solicit further input for the negotiations, and to mainstream democratic participation in the ways the European budget is allocated, spent and evaluated over the forthcoming years.