13-11-2023

Agreement was reached on the 2024 European Union Budget: EUR 2.7 billion will reach Lithuania

After intense negotiations, on 11 November, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the European Union (EU) reached an agreement on the 2024 EU budget. Next year's Community budget payment appropriations will exceed EUR 142 billion. Lithuania will receive about EUR 2.7 billion from the EU budget next year, and the country's contribution to the general budget will reach almost EUR 687 million.

Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė welcomed the final agreement between the EP and the Council, which reflects Lithuania's key priorities.

"During the negotiations, it was important for Lithuania to ensure not only sufficient funds for cohesion policy and agriculture, but also humanitarian aid for Ukraine. We can be pleased that with the efforts of Lithuania, together with other like-minded countries, a tangible amount of support for Ukraine appeared in the final next year’s EU budget. In addition, we managed to negotiate additional funds for military mobility, transport infrastructure and the countries of the Eastern Partnership, especially Moldova," says Minister of Finance G. Skaistė.

In 2024, the funds received from the EU budget in the Lithuanian budget should amount to about EUR 2.7 billion. The largest amount of EU funds is planned to be received from Cohesion Policy Funds – EUR 0.7 billion. EUR 151.9 million is planned for Ignalina NPP Decommissioning Programme, for agriculture – EUR 0.9 billion. Lithuania's contribution to the EU budget should reach EUR 686.9 million.

Next year, the EU budgetary commitments will reach EUR 189.39 billion, and the payments will amount to EUR 142.63 billion. As usual, in the EU budget, the largest share of funding is allocated to the main areas – cohesion policy (EUR 64.7 billion) and agriculture (EUR 57.34 billion). Great attention in the 2024 EU budget is planned to be given to programmes that contribute to the domestic market, innovation and digital transition (EUR 21.49 billion), activities in the areas of the EU neighbourhood and external actions (EUR 16.23 billion).

The additional amount for humanitarian aid provided for during the negotiations (+EUR 250 million, compared to the initial proposal of the European Commission) will finance not only the needs of Ukraine, but also the needs of the Middle East region. The final agreement also includes by EUR 50 million increased amount for the Eastern Partnership (primarily, Moldova), by EUR 30 million more – for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), and by EUR 10 million more for military mobility projects.

This year's negotiations are exclusive, as they took place in the context of the mid-term review of the2021-2027 EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), thus, the EU institutions, along with the consensus on the next year's EU budget, agreed that the results of the MFF review, as soon as they are agreed at the level of the EU leaders, will be immediately transferred in the 2024 budget under the amending budget procedure.