A coalition of fourteen EU member states has signed a non-paper opposing the European Commission’s proposal to centralise the management and distribution of EU funds, calling instead for a region-based allocation in the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
With the proposal for the next EU budget after 2027 expected soon, political tensions are rising. Fourteen member states have endorsed a non-paper resisting the European Commission’s plans to centralise the management and distribution of EU funds.
“Only a distinct and robust budget and a region-based allocation methodology, reflecting the different development levels of regions, together with a stand-alone Cohesion Policy dedicated legislation, can ensure that the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will deliver long-term unity, competitiveness and convergence across EU regions,” the document states.
The signatories—Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia—seek to secure a separate fund for narrowing socio-economic gaps between the richest and poorest regions.
The move comes in response to reports that the Commission plans to create a single funding pot for each EU country—covering around 530 programmes—and to link fund access to policy objectives. Centralising management would increase the power of national governments and Brussels, while potentially disadvantaging regions and some Commission departments.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to present the budget proposal for the 2028–2034 period on July 16, but criticism from regions, member states, MEPs, and industry groups continues to grow.
Both Poland and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament have voiced concerns about the plan to merge individual funding streams into a single national pot and to introduce a ‘payments against reforms’ rule. “We will strongly oppose the ‘one national plan per member state’ approach, as well as the possibility for national plans to be underpinned by a ‘payments against reforms’ rule,” the Socialists wrote in a letter to von der Leyen.
The S&D group also called for a larger and more ambitious long-term budget, exceeding the current 1% of the EU’s GDP, or about €1.2 trillion.
Poland’s conservative government emphasized that reforms should not lead to further centralisation or merging of funding instruments, stating in its July 1 position paper, “Regions should remain at the core of cohesion policy.”
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion policy account for more than two-thirds of the EU budget. Poland, the largest recipient of cohesion funds, insists that their combined share in the MFF should not be reduced. “One of the priorities of the next MFF should be increasing the importance of economic, social, and territorial cohesion within the EU and striving for convergence,” Poland’s paper argues. “Competitiveness and cohesion are the two sides of the same coin.”
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