The EU's Long-term Budget and Civil Society

In November, The Wheel attended a conference hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels titled Invest in What Matters: What is at stake in the next EU long-term budget – event with key players and Civil Society Organisations. As Ireland approaches its European Presidency tenure, we are seeking to gain further insight into European processes and what this means for our members and for civil society more broadly. 

The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is the EU-wide Budget, a crucial part of the European agenda that underpins policy and funding. It is highly relevant for civil society as it not only determines spending on programmes such as Agora/CERV, LEADER, Peace Plus, Erasmus etc. but reflects overarching priorities for the EU. 

The MFF serves 450 million people in 27 countries, but represents only 1.14% of European GDP (current MFF). The next budget is still in the negotiations phase, with priorities outlined in May, followed by contributions and opinions from committees, further discussion in December, and a common position agreed by the end of 2026 for finalising early 2027. This means that the Irish Presidency of the EU will take place at a critical stage of the MFF negotiations. 

Invest in What Matters brought together civil society organisations from across Europe, working in a broad range of areas and including advocacy organisations, service providers and networks. The goal of the morning workshop was to look at ways to raise awareness about why this budget matters to citizens and to plan joint communication actions. European Parliament representatives spoke about the need to better communicate about the MFF and its relevance to citizens through civil society. In reality, the main way that citizens and civil society can influence the MFF is through elected MEPs. 

From The Wheel’s perspective it was interesting to see the various levels of engagement with Europe amongst different organisations, as well as meeting with similar network bodies. It proved particularly interesting to talk to Danish civil society organisations on their current experience of the presidency. 

The afternoon comprised a high-level debate panel chaired by Emilie Tournier (European Parliament Deputy Spokesperson). The speakers were Sabine Verheyen (European Parliament Vice-President), Siegfried Mureșan and Carla Tavares (European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs), Elena Calistru (President of the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO), European Economic and Social Committee), Sari Rautio (European Committee of the Regions’ rapporteur) and Christian Mangold (Director-General, Directorate-General for Communication). They spoke about general priorities for the next budget, including increased defence spending, food security and improved policy cohesion in areas such as agriculture. The co-rapporteurs in particular mentioned an increased role for the European Parliament in influencing the budget, as well as a greater role for the regions in an attempt at decentralising. 

Questions from the floor were varied but many centred around current threats to civil society and shrinking space for civic dialogue in some member states. Attendees emphasised the need for significant ongoing funding to be secured for programmes such as Agora. There was also some concern that the simplification and combining of previous programmes such as CERV could result in greater competition for funds from for-profit entities without any overall increase in funding. Specific concerns were also raised about commitments to disability funding and arts funding, and climate programmes that have disappeared from the current MFF. In answering these questions, EU representatives expressed support for civil society but acknowledged that some anti-NGO sentiment comes from within the parliament itself. 

The conversation finished with a discussion about anti-EU sentiment and the need to reclaim the narrative from populists. Attendees from civil society emphasised that the EU budget should underpin this sentiment with tangible support for civil society if change is to occur.