Poland welcomes new EU budget proposal, saying it would be the biggest beneficiary

Poland's government has welcomed the European Commission's newly proposed budget for the 2028-2034 period. It has also hailed it as a success, saying that Poland would continue to be the biggest recipient of EU funds.

As well as continued support for agricultural and “cohesion” (the EU's term for helping poorer regions catch up with richer ones), the budget includes increased emphasis on economic competitiveness and defense.

However, opposition politicians in Poland have raised concern over what they claim is lower support for farmers, while some other EU member states have expressed opposition to the budget proposal in its current form.

On Wednesday, the European Commission presented its proposed long-term budget, formally known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). It amounts to almost €2 trillion in total, representing around 1.26% of the EU's forecast gross national income between 2028 and 2034.

The IFF must still be agreed by member states and approved by the European Parliament, a process that is likely to involve years of tough negotiations.

But the proposed budget was welcomed by Polish finance minister Andrzej Domański. He congratulated the EU's budget commissioner, Piotr Serafin, who is from Poland.

“Poland is the biggest beneficiary of the largest EU budget in history!” wrote Domański. "According to the proposal, spending is increasing in priority areas for Poland. Security, cohesion, agriculture, but also innovation – key to building a strong economy."

The commission has not yet presented a breakdown of how much money individual countries would get from the new budget, so the amount Poland is set to receive is not yet clear, notes the Polityka weekly.

However, Polityka cites preliminary estimates that Poland would get around €10 billion for cohesion policy and common agricultural policy, which is a similar amount to the current budget.

But, because of Poland's growing GDP, it would also contribute more to the budget (though remaining a net beneficiary overall).

While welcomed by Poland's pro-EU government, the budget plans were strongly criticized by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition party.

PiS MEP and former government spokesman Piotr Müller claimed that the budget would result in less money for farmers and regions, which Poland has previously benefited significantly from.

He also warned that the EU's plans to make payments conditional were part of efforts by Brussels to exert control over countries whose governments disagree with them.

The commission has emphasized that the new budget will be conditional on respect for the rule of law, an issue that previously led Brussels to clash with Poland's former PiS government .

Politicians in other member states have also expressed skepticism towards the commission's proposals. Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen said that “the proposed budget is too high”, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán, who has regularly clashed with Brussels on a range of issues, declared that the proposed IFF “is not even fit to be negotiated”. He derided it as a “pro-Ukrainian budget” that will result in “globalist bureaucrats…drain[ing] Europe's money into Ukraine”.

Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, it has consistently been the largest overall recipient of European funds. Under the current budget, for example, Poland is the top net beneficiary, receiving around €7.1 billion in total.

However, when taking account of the size of countries' populations, Poland's figure is among the lowest of the 17 member states who are net recipients, notes Euronews .

Poland's figure of €191 net receipts per person over the budget period is well below the biggest beneficiaries, such as Croatia (€619), Estonia (€613) and Latvia (€592), as well as Hungary (€459), Greece (€373) and Portugal (€200).

Luxembourg and Belgium are also major net recipients, but their figures are distorted by the fact that they host EU institutions that are funded by the budget.

I think the net contribution per capita is more important. There NL “leads”… https://t.co/CBW3RIXEQN pic.twitter.com/bQZ2QjYsvF

— woli2017 (@woli2017) February 12, 2025

Main image credit: Kiefer/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0 )