The European Commission's proposal for the next EU budget marks an ambitious effort to boost and restructure funding around strategic priorities such as competitiveness, defense and strategic autonomy, but it faces significant internal resistance over revenue sources, spending cuts and greater centralization, setting the stage for a protracted and complex negotiation process over the next two years. On July 16, the European Commission unveiled a proposal for a 1.98 trillion euro ($2.31 trillion) EU budget for 2028 to 2034, amounting to 1.26% of the bloc's gross national income (GNI) and a 70% increase from the current seven-year budget. Brussels has also proposed overhauling the budget's structure and allocation by consolidating multiple budget lines into three, more centralized pillars. The first pillar allocates 865 billion euros to so-called National and Regional Plans, which merge the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy funds and tie funding to reforms and rule-of-law compliance....
