Net-payer countries call for bigger cuts to EU’s 2028-2034 budget

Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and several other countries that are net contributors to the EU’s budget have called for bigger cuts to the Union’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034.

Speaking at a public debate on a compromise budget proposal on 16/06/2026, Gunther Krichbaum, Germany’s minister for EU affairs, said: “What we have on the table is not acceptable.”

The compromise presented by Cyprus, which holds the presidency of the Council of Ministers until the end of June, proposes a 2% cut to the size of the 2028-2034 budget compared to the European Commission’s proposal from July 2025.

Krichbaum, speaking at the EU’s General Affairs Council in Luxembourg, said that national budgets were under “huge pressure” and efforts to “tighten our belts at national level” had to be matched at the EU level.

His comments received strong support from Jessica Rosencrantz, Sweden’s minister for EU affairs, who said that the Cyprus presidency proposal was “not acceptable” and called for cuts “much bigger than the 2%” proposed by Cyprus. She said Sweden wanted a budget of 1.1…