Macron warns EU leaders they need to agree budget by end of year
"Starting from January, there will be no political room" for concluding an agreement, French president tells summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned fellow EU leaders to finalize the bloc’s seven-year budget by year-end, citing the political challenges in doing so afterward, according to four European diplomats. This heightened the urgency for the EU to reconcile their significant disagreements over the forthcoming weeks. At a private meeting on Thursday evening, Macron disclosed his inability to offer a political endorsement for concluding a deal in the run-up to the French presidential elections in April 2027, as reported by the diplomats, all privy to the conversation.
Macron asserted, “From January, there will be no political space” to finalize an agreement, said one diplomat. The EU’s 27 governments are at odds regarding the overall budget size for 2028-2034. Discussions are underway in Brussels concerning the Irish plan, which proposes a €159 billion reduction in current prices from the Commission’s nearly €2 trillion proposal.
European Council President António Costa is urging leaders to wrap up negotiations by December during a summit, ahead of France, Italy, and Poland's 2027 elections, but some governments and EU officials question the feasibility of this timeline. One EU diplomat dismissed Macron’s remarks as a “threat to support [Costa] on December deadline.”
EU officials argue that taking into account all local elections would make the EU ungovernable. Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner in the French far-right, pledged during a Brussels press conference to cut France’s EU budget contributions in half if elected. She accused the EU of accelerating talks to prevent her successor from having input.
Several leaders are reluctant to commit to the end-of-year deadline, concerned that time pressure could weaken their negotiating position. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated at a parliamentary meeting, “We will not sign an agreement that is not advantageous to us just to meet a deadline. We will sign an agreement only when it is right for Italy.”
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