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The Council today adopted three legislative acts related to the revision of the EU multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, giving the final go-ahead for the package, which is aimed at reinforcing the EU long-term budget in a targeted manner and addressing new challenges, such as the consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
The package includes a regulation amending the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, as well as regulations establishing the Ukraine Facility and the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP).
The amendments to the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 reflect the agreement reached by EU leaders on 1 February 2024 and reinforce the EU long-term budget in a limited number of priority areas.
In total, €64.6 billion of additional funding will be made available to address new and emerging challenges facing the EU and to meet the EU's legal obligations which could otherwise no longer be accommodated within the current budgetary ceilings.
The additional funding covers support for Ukraine, migration and the external dimension, investments in critical technologies as part of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, Next Generation EU interest payments and emergency aid in situations such as natural disasters and humanitarian crises in the EU and worldwide.
It will be distributed as follows:
To reduce the impact on national budgets, a portion of this funding, totalling €10.6 billion, will be covered by budgetary redeployments.
The Ukraine Facility will be a new dedicated instrument to support Ukraine's recovery, reconstruction and modernisation, while supporting its efforts to carry out reforms as part of its accession path to the EU.
It will pool the EU's budget support to Ukraine into one single instrument, providing coherent, predictable and flexible support for the period 2024-2027 to Ukraine, adapted to the unprecedented challenges of supporting a country at war.
The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform will mobilise investments in the fields of digital and deep tech, cleantech and biotech, with the overall aim of strengthening the EU's sovereignty and long-term competitiveness in these critical technologies.
Through a mix of financial incentives and measures to facilitate the financing of projects, it will leverage funding in support of critical technologies under existing EU programmes and funds, including cohesion policy funds, InvestEU, Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.