On the guidelines for the 2026 budget – Section III

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OPINION

The Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Welcomes the fact that the multiannual financial framework (MFF) revision in 2024 provided for additional funding under Heading 6 and for the EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility; deplores, however, the fact that the MFF revision fell short of the needs identified by Parliament; reiterates the urgent need to increase funding, particularly in crisis-affected regions where the needs are greatest, and to address the various challenges in the neighbourhood, invest in partnerships and strengthen the geopolitical position of the EU; underlines in particular the need for continued efforts to finance Ukraine’s immediate funding needs; underlines that the EU should further step up efforts to enable frozen and immobilised Russian assets to be used for Ukraine’s reconstruction and for reparations, in accordance with EU and international law;

2. Reiterates that an adequate level of funding should be maintained for the Southern Neighbourhood in 2025 to support political, economic and social reforms in the region; highlights in particular the pressing need to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza and Lebanon, and possibly Syria;

3. Welcomes the new Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans and the proposed Facility for Moldova; underlines that the Reform Agendas, which beneficiaries need to develop, are a promising instrument to speed up transformation and compliance with EU norms; calls on the Commission, in the interest of a successful accession process, to strictly apply the conditionalities enshrined in the two facilities; calls for the funds allocated to civil society and for the functioning of the media to be at least doubled; calls, furthermore, on the Commission to present a proposal for an instrument for pre-accession assistance for the next MFF that incorporates the facilities to avoid overlaps and covers all 10 enlargement countries;

4. Underlines the need for the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to be provided with adequate financial and human resources in order to promote peace, prosperity, security and EU values and interests in both the European neighbourhood and across the globe; highlights the need to maintain the current network of EU delegations around the world and to provide financing that is commensurate with the role the Union expects all delegations to play on the ground; notes, furthermore, that the EEAS, with 145 delegations around the globe, cannot be measured according to the same logic as that applied to European institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Council not to apply the 2 % logic to the EEAS.