The Council of the European Union has formally adopted the bloc’s annual budget for 2026, confirming a political agreement reached with the European Parliament earlier this month.
The decision comes as MEPs gather in Strasbourg from 24 to 27 November for a plenary session dominated by debates on Hungary’s rule of law situation and urgent resolutions on human rights in Iran, Tunisia and Tanzania.
According to the Council, the 2026 budget sets total commitments at €192.8 billion and payments at €190.1 billion. A margin of €715.7 million has been left under the ceilings of the current multiannual financial framework, in order to preserve flexibility for unforeseen events. Commitments represent legal promises to spend money on programmes that may run over several years, while payments reflect actual disbursements made in a given year.
The figures reflect a compromise reached on 15 November during conciliation talks between Parliament and Council negotiators. In that deal, the overall level of commitments was fixed at €192.8 billion and payments at €190.1 billion, restoring around €1.3 billion in cuts made by member states to the Commission’s original draft. Parliament secured an additional €372.7 million for a number of programmes it had identified as priorities.
MEPs obtained targeted increases across several headings, including a €105 million boost for the promotion of European agricultural products and extra resources for research, infrastructure and external action. Horizon Europe will receive €20 million more than the level initially agreed by governments, while transport and energy networks under the Connecting Europe Facility gain a further €23.5 million. Additional funding has also been channelled to civil protection and RescEU, the LIFE climate programme, border management, military mobility, Erasmus+, neighbourhood policies and humanitarian aid.
The largest share of the budget, within Heading 2 “Cohesion, resilience and values”, amounts to commitments of around €71.6 billion, with a further €56.5 billion allocated to “Natural resources and environment”, which covers the Common Agricultural Policy and environmental programmes. Spending on “Neighbourhood and the world” totals €15.6 billion in commitments, supporting enlargement, neighbourhood and development policies as well as continued assistance to Ukraine. Security- and border-related lines, grouped under “Migration and border management” and “Security and defence”, are set at about €5.0 billion and €2.8 billion in commitments respectively.
Once the European Parliament has cast its final vote on the budget during the Strasbourg session, the institution’s President, Roberta Metsola, is expected to sign the text into law, completing the annual budgetary procedure.
Alongside these financial decisions, the same plenary week is being used by MEPs to address rule of law and human rights questions. A key debate focuses on Hungary, where Parliament will assess what it describes as a “persistent rule of law crisis”. On Monday, members are due to discuss a second interim report drafted by the Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee; a vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
European Parliament committee urges EU sanctions on Hungary in new Article 7 report
The draft text highlights continuing concerns about judicial independence, corruption risks, the use of EU funds and pressure on civil society in Hungary. It also reiterates Parliament’s long-standing criticism of what it sees as prolonged inaction by the Council under the Article 7 procedure, which was triggered against Hungary in 2018. MEPs call on the Commission to examine additional legal tools available under EU law to safeguard the Union’s values, including the rule of law conditionality mechanism linking EU funds to respect for basic principles.
On Wednesday afternoon, the chamber will turn to a series of urgent debates on human rights, democracy and the rule of law in third countries, followed by votes on non-legislative resolutions on Thursday. One text concerns the escalating repression of the Baha’i community in Iran, addressing reports of discrimination, arbitrary detention and restrictions on religious practice.
A second resolution examines the rule of law and human rights situation in Tunisia, with particular attention to the case of lawyer and commentator Sonia Dahmani, whose prosecution has attracted international attention. A third text focuses on Tanzania, responding to reports of post-election killings and the situation of detained opposition figure Tundu Lissu. These resolutions do not create binding obligations but are used by Parliament to set out its political position and recommendations to the Council, Commission and national authorities.
The Strasbourg agenda also includes debates on wider security and foreign policy issues, such as the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and threats to EU airspace and critical infrastructure, as well as votes on measures ranging from toy safety rules to the first European defence industry programme.
Taken together, the adoption of the 2026 budget and the week’s rule of law and human rights debates illustrate how the Parliament is using its final plenary sessions of the year both to shape the Union’s spending priorities for the next 12 months and to project its stance on governance and fundamental rights within the EU and beyond.
