EU Agrees Informal €190 Billion 2026 Budget — Defence and Border Security Receive Boost

EU agrees informal 2026 budget with targeted increases for defence and border protection

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states say they have reached an informal agreement on a 2026 budget of roughly €190 billion. The deal follows a European Commission draft of €193.26 billion and still requires formal adoption by both the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, a step officials say is likely to be procedural.

Security and migration spending are set to rise despite a marginally smaller overall budget. Member states report defence and security allocations will increase by just under €200 million, bringing that envelope to about €2.8 billion. Funding for migration and border management will be raised by around €230 million, to a total of just over €5 billion.

Brussels says parts of the 2026 budget will be used to support Ukraine and to strengthen Europe's competitiveness. The agreed figure reflects a compromise between member states — which had argued for a lower total of €186.24 billion — and the European Parliament, which initially sought €193.9 billion. For context, the 2025 allocation totaled just under €200 billion.

This 2026 plan is the sixth annual allocation under the current multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021–2027, whose total resources amount to roughly €1.1 trillion. A separate proposal for the next MFF (2028–2034) would increase the seven‑year budget to about €2 trillion — roughly €700 billion more than the current period — but this larger plan faces clear resistance, notably from Germany and some members of the European Parliament.

Next steps

The agreement must be formally adopted by the member states and the European Parliament. Observers expect that formal approval will follow without major changes, although debate will continue over the longer-term MFF for 2028–2034.