2023 European Union budget

SUMMARY OF:

Definitive adoption (EU, Euratom) 2023/278 of the European Union’s 2023 budget

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 European Union (EU) budget for 2023.

This is set at €186.6 billion in spending commitments* and €168.7 billion in payment* credits.

KEY POINTS

The budget mobilises significant public funds to:

help mitigate the severe consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in the country itself, its neighbours and EU Member States;
support a sustainable economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and employment protection and creation;
trigger further investment in a greener, more digital and more resilient Europe;
protect the most vulnerable in Europe and the wider world.

The main areas of expenditure are shown below.

	Commitments (million €)	Payments (million €)
Single market, innovation and digital	21,548.4	20,901.4
Cohesion, resilience and values Economic, social and territorial cohesion Resilience and values	70,586.7 62,926.5 7,660.2	58,058.7 50,875.0 7,183.7
Natural resources and environment Market-related expenditure and direct payments	57,259.3 40,692.2	57,455.7 40,698.2
Migration and border management	3,727.3	3,038.4
Security and defence	2,116.6	1,208.4
Neighbourhood and the world	17,211.9	13,994.9
European public administration	11,311.3	11,311.3
Thematic special instruments to enable the EU to mobilise the necessary funds to react to unforeseen events	2,855.2	2,679.8
Total appropriations	186,616.7	168,648.7

The budget identifies the following specific priority commitments:

€14.7 billion to support the EU’s neighbours and international development and cooperation, including targeted increases for the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (€12.3 billion), focusing on Moldova and Ukraine, migration in the southern neighbourhood and the humanitarian aid programme (€1.8 billion) to address crises round the world;
€1.5 billion for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and €956.8 million for the Integrated Border Management Fund to step up cooperation on external border management and migration and asylum policy, including support for Member States receiving refugees from Ukraine;
€3 billion for the Connecting Europe Facility for modern high-performance transport infrastructure to improve cross-border connections (especially to strengthen EU–Ukraine solidarity lanes, improve energy links following the energy crisis and complement the €20 billion repowerEU plan);
€295.2 million for military mobility to improve civilian and military mobility;
€3.7 billion for Erasmus+ to invest in young people, including pupils and students fleeing Ukraine, and €332.8 million for the cultural and creative sectors through the creative Europe programme;
€62.9 billion in commitments to support the ongoing recovery by boosting investment in economic, social and territorial cohesion;
€53.6 billion for the common agricultural policy and €1.1 billion for the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund for Europe’s farmers and fishers and to strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors and responses to any crises;
€12.4 billion for Horizon Europe for EU research on health, digital, industry, space, climate, energy and mobility;
€602.8 million for the single market programme and small and medium-sized enterprises across the EU;
€739.3 million for the EU4health programme for the EU health union and meeting EU citizens’ health needs;
€1.5 billion under the Just Transition Fund to ensure the transition to climate neutrality works for all and €755.5 million under the LIFE programme for the environment and climate action;
€309.9 million for the Internal Security Fund, €945.7 million for the European Defence Fund to support European strategic autonomy and security and €157 million for European defence industry reinforcement through the Common Procurement Act.

FROM WHEN DOES THE BUDGET APPLY?

It has applied since 1 January 2023.

BACKGROUND

The 2023 budget is the third 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 7-year period. In parallel, Member States will continue to rely on support from the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (Regulation (EU) 2021/241).

When approving the budget in November, EU institutions also endorsed proposed amendments to the 2022 budget that the Commission had tabled earlier in the year.

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) 2023/278 of the European Union’s annual budget for the financial year 2023 (OJ L 58, 23.2.2023, pp. 1–2053).

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