The annual negotiation and legislation processes for the EU budget 2024 are in full swing. On 8 September, the Council of the European Union formally approved the position reached by the Ambassadors of the member states to the European Union (Coreper) on 12 July, amending the European Commission’s proposal published on 7 June. 

On 13 September, EU Council presented its position on EU 2024 budget during European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. As expected, the Council took a prudent approach, while stressing the importance for the budget for 2024 to continue showing the Union’s solidarity with the people of Ukraine and to respond to crises. The Council also calls for common measures to contain administrative expenditure that has been increasing over what was initially planned due to the high inflation and energy prices. While the Council proposed some cuts to Horizon Europe and Creative Europe, the Commission’s proposal for Erasmus+ was untouched by the Council although no margins are left under Heading 2.2 “Resilience and values”. 

The European Parliament will vote on its own position for the budgetary negotiations in October. In the meantime, the Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) adopted an opinion on the general budget of the EU for the financial year 2024, proposing a EUR 60 million increase for Erasmus+. The opinion highlights the difficult context created by the need to recover from the impact of the pandemic, high inflation and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The opinion stressed the need to implement the programme objectives in their legal basis effectively, particularly with regard to inclusion as well as the green and digital transitions. 

The budget for 2024 has to be agreed between the Council and the Parliament by the end of this year. 

Table: Positioning of the Erasmus+ budget 2024. 

More details 

European Parliament Committee on Budgets Working document on Council’s position on Draft Budget 2024 (Section III)