€2000000000000
Your money. Our alternative.
The European Commission and Parliament are proposing the largest EU budget in history. Much of it fails the subsidiarity test. There is a better way.
~€2T
Parliament's proposal
€1.76T
Commission's proposal
€1.54T
EPICENTER's proposal
~€400 bn.
gap between Parliament
and EPICENTER proposals
€220 bn.
gap between Commission
and EPICENTER proposals
The Commission wants to spend €1.76 trillion of taxpayer money over 7 years, a 32% increase over the current budget. The Parliament's proposal pushes the total close to €2 trillion. We show it can be done for €1.54 trillion, at roughly 1% of EU GNI, without sacrificing a single core function of the Single Market. The difference is a policy choice, not a necessity.
New EU taxes should mean lower national ones
The Commission proposes €58 billion per year in new EU-level revenues: a corporate levy (CORE), tobacco duties (TEDOR), an e-waste charge, ETS and CBAM transfers. Without a binding guarantee that every euro raised at EU level is matched by a euro cut nationally, this is a net tax increase on 450 million Europeans. EU tax revenues already stand at 39% of GDP, 13 points above the United States.
€58bn/year
New EU-level revenues
39%
Average tax burden in the EU
26%
Average tax burden in the US
Europe doesn't lack capital. It has €8 trillion sleeping
The Commission says public borrowing must fill Europe's investment gap. But as ECB President Lagarde has shown, if Europeans invested in equity markets at the same rate as Americans, €8 trillion would flow into productive investment. EU pension assets sit at 28% of GDP. In the US, it's 143%. That's a €19.7 trillion retirement savings gap. The answer isn't more government debt. It's pension reform and capital market integration.
0T
Retirement savings gap
28%
EU pension assets (% of GDP)
143%
US pension assets (% of GDP)
EU subsidies won't fix what regulation broke
The €409 billion European Competitiveness Fund puts Brussels in charge of picking winners through grants, loans, and equity stakes. Yet the EU's own track record undermines the case: Horizon Europe's mainstream grants attract just €0.09 in private co-investment for every €1 of public money. Northvolt, a flagship of EU-backed industrial policy, went bankrupt. The subsidiarity principle exists for a reason.
€409bn
Competitiveness Fund
A budget Europe can agree on, not fight over for years
The last MFF negotiation dragged on for nearly three years. A 2020 repeat would leave Europe scrabbling over the budget at a time of war, geopolitical competition, and economic stagnation. Our alternative is designed to be politically achievable: it respects subsidiarity, focuses spending on genuine Single Market functions, and gives member states back the fiscal space to fund their own priorities. A leaner budget isn't austerity. It's a budget that can actually get agreed.
Build your own budget
Each category starts at the Commission's proposed level. Drag below or above to build your own MFF. Categories flagged as failing the subsidiarity test are spending the EPICENTER paper argues should return to member states.
Adjust the spending
Commission
EPICENTER
Fails subsidiarity
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Budget growth 2000-2034
Spending only ever moves upward
The EU risks a trajectory where spending increasing subsantially without proper justification. EPICENTER argues for a disciplined 1% GNI cap through smarter prioritisation.
Keep the next MFF at 1% of the EU's Gross National Income
| MFF period | Budget |
|---|---|
| 2000–2006 | €712 billion |
| 2007–2013 | €975 billion |
| 2014–2020 | €1.08 trillion |
| 2021–2027 | €1.21 trillion |
| 2028–2034 (European Parliament) | €2 trillion |
| 2028–2034 (Commission) | €1.76 trillion |
| 2028–2034 (EPICENTER) | €1.54 trillion |
See the full picture
Explore every budget heading, read our chapter-by-chapter analysis, or go straight to the recommendations.
Watch the 90-second explainer
How €1.76 trillion became the number — and what the alternative looks like
