Bulk of the EUR 1026 bn 2014-2020 MFF

However, Commission President Juncker
already excluded “drastic” cuts in both spending categories, being aware of the
high sensitivity of the issue among member states. After all, the next MFF needs
to be agreed unanimously by all EU27 members. While describing cuts to
agricultural and cohesion spending as necessary, Commissioner Oettinger
expects them to be rather moderate between 5 and 10%. Still, one can expect
that the distribution of cost cuts will trigger hot debates.

The EU budget always had a strong “status quo bias” and proved itself resilient
to past reform attempts. In particular efforts to reduce spending for the Common
Agricultural Policy have met strong resistance over the last decades. The share
of subsidies to farmers and agricultural development programs has gradually
given way to regional policy spending, in particular with the accession of 12 new
member countries in the early 2000s, which required substantial spending in
order to address increased regional economic and social discrepancies.