Council wants the 2018 EU budget to focus on growth, jobs, security and handling migration

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2017-09-05

The Council is clear that the 2018 EU budget should be mainly about growth, jobs, security and handling migration, but it also wants to keep enough financial leeway to respond to unforeseen needs. The details are set out in the Council's position which it adopted on 4 September 2017.

The Council wants more than €122.5 billion (almost 85% of total payments) to be used to help stimulate growth and create jobs. Other important priorities are ensuring the security of European citizens and handling the migration crisis.

In total, the Council foresees €158.9 billion in commitments and €144.4 billion in payments. This is an increase of 0.6% and 7.4% respectively compared to the 2017 EU budget. The significant increase in payments reflects the fact that the 2014-2020 programmes will be at an advanced stage of implementation.

The Council also approved two proposals to draw on the 2017 EU budget to provide assistance to young unemployed persons as well as to the Italian regions affected by a series of earthquakes in 2016.

Source: European Council Council of the European Union

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