EU leaders to discuss 2028-2034 budget at informal meeting in April

EU leaders will discuss the Union’s budget for 2028-2034 at their informal meeting in Cyprus on 23-24/04/2026, the European Council President has said.

In an invitation letter to all 27 leaders sent on 14/04/2026, António Costa, the President of the European Council, said that he wanted leaders to “discuss the contribution of the new EU long-term budget to our competitiveness agenda”, adding that it would be “the main instrument at our disposal for common strategic action”.

Costa said in his letter that leaders were meant to discuss the long-term budget or Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) at their meeting in March, but were not able to do so because of international events.

The European Council President said that he wanted an “open discussion” about how to match the EU’s ambitions with the “appropriate level of financing” for the MFF. This discussion should include new sources of revenue for the EU, he said, referring to what is known as “own resources”.

Costa said that the members of the European Council, EU leaders, would “come back to the MFF regularly during 2026 to create…