The EU Commission’s proposal for the next multiannual financial framework hides a political revolution in plain sight. Although the Commission unveiled its proposal back in August, Brussels is only now beginning to grasp what the next seven-year budget framework truly entails. Officially called the Multiannual Financial Framework (or just MFF in EU jargon) for the 2028-34 period, it comes with an audacious promise: it “will be much more than just a financial plan. It will be a strategic statement of the Union’s collective ambition.” The new MFF is less a budget than a political mutation: an attempt by the Commission to extend its power by means of fiscal engineering. The language of “partnership” and “cooperation” is meant to conceal a more sobering reality: in almost every paragraph, the new budget tightens Brussels’ control at the expense of the member states.
