More money for agriculture and cohesion?

Lawmakers are pushing for a major funding boost in the cohesion and agricultural budgets.

Leyla Cheamil, 05.10.2026, 13:50

The future budget of the European Union is being debated this week in Strasbourg by Members of the European Parliament and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Parliament has already signaled that it wants higher funding than the estimates proposed by the EU Executive or requested by net contributor states, those whose financial contributions exceed the amounts they receive from the EU budget. To effectively support several key areas such as cohesion policies and agriculture, members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg are advocating for an increase in the EU’s budget for the 2028–2034 financial framework beyond the limits proposed by the European Commission.

This budgetary increase is expected to be supported by the creation of new own resources, including taxes on the digital sector, online gambling and crypto-asset operations.

Romania’s President, Nicușor Dan, recently announced that the “Friends of Cohesion” Group, which comprises 17 EU member states, has sent a joint letter to Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, requesting that agriculture and cohesion be maintained as central priorities in the upcoming European budgetary framework. The Bucharest leader recently stated that Romania desires, first and foremost, an ambitious budget with substantial allocations for cohesion and agriculture, explaining that this is necessary to address disparities among citizens of different European countries.

On the other hand, the Parliament’s co-rapporteurs for the future budget, Siegfried Mureșan of Romania and Carla Tavares of Portugal, emphasized that a smaller budget will force member states to address more challenges separately at the national level, likely at higher costs.

Siegfried Mureșan stressed that cohesion policy remains just as relevant even in the context of the European Union’s new challenges regarding security, defense, and competitiveness, and can help member states grow stronger in these areas.

“We will invest a larger share of cohesion funds into projects that contribute to citizen safety in the future”, Mureșan said.

“Our position as the European Parliament is that European fund beneficiaries need predictability. Consequently, in the European Parliament’s position, all funds are allocated”, Mureșan noted. He added that, working alongside colleagues from the European Committee of -Regions, they successfully established a European Parliament position on the future EU budget that is 10% higher than the initial budget draft proposed by the European Commission.

“The European Commission proposed 2 trillion euros. The European Parliament’s position, which I managed to establish as chief negotiator, is 2.2 trillion Euros. For Romania, this means an increase in funds from 60 to 66 billion Euros”, Mureșan pointed out. (VP)