Workshop: The future of the EU’s budget and the 2030 Agenda

With the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU will define not only the financial but also the political priorities until 2030. Which political objectives the EU intends to pursue in the future will therefore be a key issue during the MFF negotiations. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which the EU played a key role in shaping, should guide this debate. In terms of EU domestic policy, the 2030 Agenda should help the European budget be more strongly tuned towards socially disadvantaged groups, reduce the EU’s environmental footprint and promote sustainable economic growth. This, in turn, would enable the MFF to bolster public support for Europe. In terms of EU foreign relations, the 2030 Agenda requires the EU to not only focus on short-term security and migration policy interests but to allocate resources in the budget for supporting long-term sustainable development. This would allow the EU to position itself as a frontrunner for sustainable development – internationally as well as towards industrialised, emerging and developing countries.
The high-level workshop brought together a small group of decision-makers and researchers to discuss how the 2030 Agenda could be integrated in the next MFF. The workshop was co-organised by the ETTG, DIE, SWP and SDSN Germany and took place on March 20 in Berlin.