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BUDGETARY ASSESSMENT (COM(2025)0550 – C100173/2025 – 2025/0550(COD))

On the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the ‘AgoraEU’ programme for the period 2028 to 2034, and repealing Regulations (EU) 2021/692 and (EU) 2021/818

BUDG-AD-787038

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Sandra Gómez López

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The Committee on Budgets gives its budgetary assessment of the proposed 'AgoraEU' programme for 2028 to 2034, which merges the Creative Europe and CERV programmes. It asks the lead committees to raise the programme envelope from EUR 8 582 000 000 to EUR 10 720 330 000 in current prices and EUR 9 500 000 000 in 2025 prices. It calls for a detailed budgetary nomenclature, broken down by strand, to be added to the proposal as an annex and treated as part of Parliament's negotiating position. It sets out conditions on flexibility, financial instruments, external assigned revenue, third-country participation, performance reporting and protection of the Union's financial interests.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgets proposes that the lead committees amend the proposal to raise the AgoraEU envelope to EUR 10 720 330 000 in current prices and EUR 9 500 000 000 in 2025 prices, add an annex defining a detailed budgetary nomenclature, and strengthen transparency, oversight and protection of the Union's financial interests.

Key points

  1. Notes that AgoraEU merges Creative Europe and CERV and that both predecessor programmes are structurally oversubscribed, so a further budget increase is required.
  2. Considers the envelope should rise from EUR 8 582 000 000 in current prices to EUR 10 720 330 000 in current prices and EUR 9 500 000 000 in 2025 prices, without diluting support for culture, media, civil society, equality and Daphne actions.
  3. Welcomes the EU strategy for civil society and calls for long-term, predictable and sufficient funding for civil society organisations, including operating grants, with transparency and accountability.
  4. Highlights the need for broad accessibility across all strands and recalls Article 207 of the Financial Regulation allowing financial support to third parties ('cascade funding').
  5. Considers that sufficient human, technical and IT resources must be available from the outset and throughout the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework, and that administrative expenses must not come at the expense of the programme envelope.
  6. Insists on sufficiently detailed legislation and sound governance for budgetary decision-making and parliamentary oversight, and says the steering mechanism cannot substitute Parliament's legislative and budgetary powers.
  7. Recommends breaking the overall envelope down by strand, with indicative sub-envelopes for any additional strands, and ensuring transparency on cross-cutting activities, so that flexibility does not centralise budget implementation or weaken the budgetary authority.
  8. Deplores the lack of a detailed indicative budgetary nomenclature in the legislative financial and digital statement and recommends a more detailed nomenclature reflecting the programme's objectives and structure.
  9. Recalls Article 47(2) of the Financial Regulation on nomenclature and recommends that the lead committees amend the proposal to include an annex defining the nomenclature, with the revised statement part of the final agreement.
  10. Sets conditions on the budgetary guarantee and financial instruments: transparent presentation and monitoring of borrowing and lending, specification of blending amounts in the annual budgetary procedure, and fiscally responsible interest rates.
  11. Calls for justified, coordinated and traceable reallocations to and from shared management programmes, and for clarity on the eligibility period, the ceiling on technical and administrative expenditure, and audit rights including in third countries.
  12. Requires that reflows stay in the programme, that external assigned revenue be circumscribed and scrutinised, and that third-country participation be transparent, financially reciprocal and conditional on regulatory alignment, including with Directive 2010/13/EU.

Who is affected

  • The Committee on Culture and Education and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, which receive these suggestions as amendments.
  • The Commission, which would implement the programme and whose discretion over spending and reallocation the committee wants limited.
  • Civil society organisations, which should receive long-term, predictable funding, including operating grants.
  • Third countries and their organisations, whose participation would require financial contributions and regulatory alignment.
  • Member states, which would coordinate with the Commission on reallocations and must respect rule-of-law and Charter obligations in budget implementation.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 8 582 000 000 in current prices — the proposed programme envelope the committee wants increased.
  • EUR 10 720 330 000 in current prices — the increased envelope the committee proposes.
  • EUR 9 500 000 000 in 2025 prices — the increased envelope the committee proposes.
  • 2028 to 2034 — the period of the proposed AgoraEU programme.
  • 2021-2027 — the period of the cumulated CERV and CREA budget used for comparison.