Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni put it bluntly in a parliamentary speech on Wednesday: “we will not sign an agreement that is not beneficial to us just to meet a deadline.” Her words capture the position of European governments on the bloc’s next seven-year budget, and explain why they’ve quietly dropped a firm end-of-year target.
Draft Council conclusions seen by POLITICO show governments have watered down a commitment to secure a deal by December. European Council President António Costa wants leaders to finalise negotiations at a summit that month, before elections next year in France, Italy and Poland threaten to derail the talks. But the capitals aren’t willing to be bound.
Leverage Over Speed
The reasoning is plain. Governments fear a hard deadline would undermine their bargaining position, handing the advantage to whoever is least troubled by the clock. Several countries, including Italy and France, urged Costa’s team to strike a reference to “reaching a final agreement by the end of the year” from the conclusions, according to two EU diplomats briefed on the discussions, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity.
Meloni went further. “We will sign an agreement only when it is right for Italy,” she told parliament. It’s a stance that treats the multiannual budget as what it is: a negotiation among sovereign member states over who pays and who receives, not a technical exercise to finish on a Brussels timetable.
The new draft conclusions, dated Tuesday evening, call only for a “timely agreement.” They add that a deal by the end of the year would allow EU funding to start flowing when the next budget takes effect in 2028, in two years’ time. That’s the same wording used in the Council conclusions from last June. The text has moved back to where it stood before Costa’s push.
There’s another complication on the calendar. Concerns linger that Spain’s snap elections on Nov. 29, about six weeks away, could work against an end-of-year deadline.
The Money on the Table
Leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to react for the first time to an Irish budget proposal that envisages €159 billion in cuts. The summit agenda also covers energy prices, enlargement, Ukraine and migration. Each file carries a price tag, and each will compete for space in a budget that governments are already reluctant to hand over without concessions.
The tension is structural. Costa is pressing for speed because next year’s elections in France, Italy and Poland could reshuffle the political cards. Capitals, meanwhile, see time as leverage, not as a threat to manage.
Transatlantic Language
The draft conclusions also contain a political message aimed at Washington. EU leaders condemn U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel. They express “regret” over U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court and pledge to engage with Washington to reverse those measures.
Why This Matters:
The retreat from a December deadline shows where power actually sits in the European Union: with national governments that answer to national electorates. For taxpayers in net-contributor countries, that’s a safeguard. A budget rushed through under time pressure is negotiated from weakness, and the figures involved, including a proposal built around €159 billion in cuts, are too large to settle for calendar convenience.
The risk runs the other way. Without a deal in time, funding may not flow when the next budget takes effect in 2028, and elections in France, Italy and Poland next year could harden positions. Democratic accountability and fiscal discipline argue for getting the numbers right; the cost of delay is a problem leaders will have to own.