MEP in charge of EU long-term budget says Council will not be ready to negotiate before January

Leading MEP on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034 says the Council of the EU will not be ready to negotiate before January.

Siegfried Mureșan, a Romanian centre-right MEP who drafted the European Parliament’s report on the EU’s 2028-2034 budget, said on 06/10/2026: "Even if the Council, in the optimistic scenario, has an agreement on the MFF in December, they need to translate that into positions on the sectorial files, so they will not be ready to negotiate before January in any case."

He also acknowledged the delays in certain sectoral file negotiations in the Parliament, but pointed out that MEPs were working "in good faith" to conclude their reports and that they had a deadline in November: "We believe they will speed up work and the Parliament's reading on all of the files will be concluded on time so that dialogues can start without any further delay."

Following a discussion on the EU's budget for 2028-2034 at a summit of leaders on 19/06/2026, António Costa, the President of the European Council, stressed that it was very important for the EU to agree…