2021 EU budget: €164.3 billion

SUMMARY OF:

Definitive adoption (EU, Euratom) 2021/417 of the EU’s general budget for 2021

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE ACT?

It is the text agreed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopting the EU budget for 2021.
This is set at €164.3 billion in spending commitments* and €166.1 billion in payment* credits.
This represents –5.5% for the former and +1.2% for the latter, compared with the 2020 budget.

KEY POINTS

The budget mobilises significant public funds to:

respond to the coronavirus pandemic and its wide-ranging consequences;
kick-start a sustainable economic recovery, protecting and creating jobs;
invest in a greener, more digital and more resilient EU.

The main areas of expenditure are as follows.

	Commitments (million €)	Payments (million €)
Single market, innovation and digital	20,817	17,192
Cohesion and values Economic, social and territorial cohesion Resilience and values	52,862 48,191 4,671	66,154 61,868 4,286
Natural resources and environment Market-related expenditure and direct aids	58,569 40,368	56,804 40,354
Migration and border management	2,279	2,686
Security and defence	1,709	671
Neighbourhood and the world	16,097	10,811
European public administration	10,448	10,450
Thematic special instruments (Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve, European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, Brexit Adjustment Reserve)	1,471	1,293
Total appropriations	164,252	166,061

The budget identifies the following specific priority commitments:

€48.2 billion in commitments to support the recovery, boosting investment in economic, social and territorial cohesion;
€55.7 billion for the common agricultural policy and €760.7 million for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, for the EU’s farmers and fishers, but also to strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors and to provide the necessary scope for crisis management;
€1.1 billion for the digital Europe programme, for the EU’s cyberdefences and to support the digital transition;
€1.1 billion under the Just Transition Fund and €738.5 million under the LIFE programme to support environment and climate action;
€2.8 billion for the Connecting Europe Facility for an up-to-date, high-performance transport infrastructure to facilitate cross-border connections;
€575 million for the single market programme, and €36.2 million and €126.9 million respectively for the programmes supporting cooperation in the fields of taxation and customs;
€2.7 billion for Erasmus+ to invest in young people, and €306.4 million for the cultural and creative sectors through the creative Europe programme;
€873.3 million for the Asylum and Migration Fund and €533.5 million for the Integrated Border Management Fund, to step up cooperation on external border management and the migration and asylum policy;
€175.6 million for the Internal Security Fund and €945.7 million for the European Defence Fund, to support the EU’s strategic autonomy and security;
€12.1 billion to support our neighbours and international development and cooperation, along with €1.9 billion for pre-accession assistance, including in the western Balkans.

FROM WHEN DOES THE BUDGET APPLY?

It has applied since 1 January 2021.

BACKGROUND

On 4 December 2020, the Parliament, the Council and the European Commission reached an informal political agreement on the EU’s 2021 budget. This is the first under the 2021-2027 long-term budget (the multiannual financial framework) set up under Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093, which will provide €1.074 trillion of EU funding over the next 7 years (see summary).

In particular, the EU’s long-term budget is coupled with NextGenerationEU, an exceptional and temporary recovery financing mechanism that empowers the Commission to borrow up to €807 billion (or €750 billion in 2018 prices) on behalf of the EU, for recovery measures linked to commitments over the 2021-2023 period. The entry into force of the new own resources decision on 1 June 2021 enables the Commission to swiftly start the borrowing operations to raise the necessary funds for NextGenerationEU-related payments and help EU citizens, businesses, regions and cities to recover from the pandemic.

For more information, see:

EU budget (European Commission)
Factsheet on the EU budget 2021 (European Commission).

KEY TERMS

Commitments: reservation of money to cover subsequent expenses. It is the total cost of legal obligations (contracts, grant agreements/decisions) to provide finance in a given year, provided certain conditions are met.

Payments: money that will be paid out via cash or bank transfers to beneficiaries during the budget year.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Definitive adoption (EU, Euratom) 2021/417 of the European Union’s general budget for the financial year 2021 (OJ L 93, 17.3.2021, pp. 1-2286)