German Chancellor Merz says proposals for long-term EU budget amount to an increase of up to 60%

German Chancellor Merz says proposals for long-term EU budget amount to an increase of up to 60%.

The remark lands in the opening phase of the EU's multiannual budget negotiation, a process that historically runs for years and in which member states with large net contributions have consistently opened by attacking the headline size of the Commission's proposal before settling nearer the middle. Germany's form here is well established: as the largest contributor, Berlin has in every recent cycle positioned itself against expansion of the envelope, and rhetoric of this kind at the start of the talks has tended to be an anchor rather than a final position. The operative distinction is between opposition to the nominal size of the budget and opposition to its composition, since disputes over reallocations toward defence, competitiveness and away from traditional headings have proven more tractable than disputes over totals. What matters next is whether other net contributors align with Berlin's framing, which would signal a repeat of past frugal-bloc dynamics, and how the proposal treats own resources, since any attempt to fund the increase through new EU-level revenue streams is where member state resistance has historically been hardest. For markets the channel is indirect and slow: the eventual shape of the budget bears on joint issuance prospects and the euro's fiscal backing, not on near-term pricing.