The Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Union after 2020

Abstract

European union, Multiannual financial framework, European union budget. The objective of the research is to summarise and analyse the proposal of the European commission concerning the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European union (EU) for the period 2021-2027. The temporal scope of the research comprises the initial pre-covid ideas of the proposal that will be kept in the final post-covid version of the MFF which is currently under debate and is expected to be approved in the end of 2020. The research methods that have been used in the current research are: content analysis of European institutions’ documents and of research papers analysing these documents; comparisons between different EU member states positions; and generalizations. As a result of the research the main conclusion is that the post-2020 MFF brings notable changes in structural terms. The most reformed category of expenditure is “Cohesion and Values” which combines several instruments from the MFF 2014-2020. Though there is no fundamental shift in the EU priorities, it can be argued that the cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy are seriously cut not only because of Brexit but also due to the redirection of budget resources to other priorities such as migration management, border control and security instruments.