Following drastic cuts to development, including global health – and more on the horizon – the EU long-term budget (the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)) is a critical vehicle to address gaps in development cooperation and potentially help course correct. It represents one of the few budgetary processes that could see an increase in development cooperation; however, negotiations are ongoing, and diverging interests among EU Member States could put this increase at risk.
The MFF sets the ceilings for EU spending over seven years, and negotiations now underway will fix those ceilings from 2028 to 2034. The European Council has committed to reaching a deal by the end of the year which leaves the autumn to settle the overall size of the budget and the balance between different priorities or ‘headings’ in the budget. Heading 3 – Global Europe – is where the EU’s external action sits, and within it, the Global Europe Instrument (GEI) concentrates development cooperation, humanitarian aid, enlargement support, and the external dimension of migration into a single envelope, proposed at just over €200 billion. The Council’s first negotiating box cut that figure by 3.9 percent in real terms while Parliament wants it raised to €225 billion, and the two institutions are equally far apart on ODA targets, ring-fencing, governance, and conditionality. What is decided in Heading 3 will shape how much the EU invests in health, governance, and resilience in partner countries for the next decade, and who controls that spending.
To inform partners and stakeholders, who need to follow the MFF and GEI negotiations without tracking every Council document and committee amendment, rani is launching a briefing series. Each briefing issue will set out where the MFF and GEI negotiations stand, where Council and Parliament agree and differ, which dynamics could shift the outcome, and which dates matter next.
This first issue covers the state of play after the summer, the positions taken by the frugal countries and the Franco-German meeting, the Council’s partial mandate on the GEI, and the Parliament’s draft report ahead of the committee vote and the European Council in October. Subsequent issues will follow the negotiation through the Irish negotiating box, Parliament’s mandate and trilogue, and will unpack the more than 3,000 amendments once the committee has voted. CEPS supported rani as a knowledge partner in preparing this briefing.
Read rani’s September 2026 briefing on Global Europe and the next MFF.
