European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Opening remarks by Commissioner Serafin at the Annual EU Budget Conference 2026 Brussels, 2 July 2026 Ladies and gentlemen, Let me welcome you to this year's Annual Budget Conference. This event has become an important meeting point for everyone interested in one of the most powerful policy tools of the EU: its budget. As we gather here today, there is another pre...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Opening remarks by Commissioner Serafin at the Annual EU Budget Conference 2026 Brussels, 2 July 2026 Ladies and gentlemen, Let me welcome you to this year's Annual Budget Conference. This event has become an important meeting point for everyone interested in one of the most powerful policy tools of the EU: its budget. As we gather here today, there is another prestigious event taking place, and I am not referring to the World Cup. I am referring to Wimbledon. At first sight, tennis and the EU budget may not have much in common. But there is a point to this analogy. Modern tennis rewards power: physical strength has become an increasingly important factor in success. But the best players also rely on technique, knowing when to play a volley, when a drop shot can achieve more than brute force etc.. They know how to compensate for the lack of extreme power. The same logic should apply to public finance. And that is exactly what today's conference is about. And that is exactly what we mean by leveraging the EU Budget . It is not only about how much public money are at the disposal of the EU Budget, but it is also about how we can generate more impact with every euro that we spend. I know that normally when we talk about the EU budget, the first question is usually: how much ? But I don't really want to talk too much about how much, as this is subject of the MFF negotiations and the position of the Commission is well known. Today I would rather concentrate on two other important questions. The first one is on ‘ what' do we spend. And the second one is ‘ how' do we spend it. Let me start with the ‘what' question. We all know that there are policies which have long been at the very heart of European integration and they have not become any less important. I refer here to the cohesion policy, that has been conceived as a counter part to the Single Market: if goods, services, capital and people move freely across Europe, all regions must have the opportunity to benefit from that integration and also to converge. And I am also referring to the Common Agricultural Policy which is much more than income support for farmers. It is an investment in Europe's food security and the resilience of our rural economy. In both cases, the benefits extend well beyond the immediate beneficiaries. But we all know that Europe faces growing new expectations. Citizens expect security, companies expect competitiveness, our partners expect cooperation. As our means are inevitably limited, the question is of what we choose to finance, and that is indeed the most important question with which we are confronted today. I want to stress one aspect here, which we have called ‘the power of together'. In several areas, acting together at the European level creates greater value than acting separately. Nobody would seriously suggest that each Member State would be better off developing its own satellite system instead of Galileo. Nobody would argue that 27 Earth observation systems would be a better idea than Copernicus. These programmes, as well as Horizons. Nobody would argue that we would be better off by having 27 Horizons. Horizon Europe does the trick. These programmes demonstrate that spending together can allow us to spend better. That is why the Commission proposed to reorient more of our spending to these so-called European public goods, in various sectors: defence, energy, space, transport, R&D, et cetera… In that way, we proposed to move towards a more ‘modern' budget. As the discussions on our proposal progress, we need to be mindful of the link between having a frugal budget and having a modern budget. In other words, the link between ‘how much' and ‘on what'. The truth is that a more frugal EU budget may not necessarily be modern. Because the risk is that those new aspects of modernity will be the first ones to be chopped. And let me add another truth: a more frugal EU budget may not necessarily be cheaper for EU tax- payers. Because in many areas, the alternative to European spending is not no spending at all. It is national spending. Defence, energy security, and R&D will have to be financed one way or another. The choice is whether we do so separately or together. Too often, a disunited approach means a higher bill: more duplication and fewer economies of scale. In such cases, spending together is not only more effective. It is also cheaper. So that was about the ‘what for' question. Let me now turn to the third one: ‘how' we spend. The challenge is to mobilise all available sources of investment – public and private – behind European priorities. We know: there will never be enough of public resources in the EU Budget. But thanks to the Juncker Plan, we have learned that the EU budget can do much more than simply provide grants. It can leverage investment. Of course, grants will remain indispensable in many areas, particularly where market incentives are insufficient. But we should also make full use of instruments that multiply the impact of public resources where possible. Why is this important? There are three reasons in my view. First, because it allows us to have more investment with the same amount of public money. The challenge here is not to spend more. It is rather to make every euro attract other euro from other sources of funding. Second, leverage brings other actors into the process, like private investors, national promotional banks, and international financial institutions. We have those actors today with us in the room. This is not only about the additional funding, they provide also their expertise and their sense of ownership. The result is often better projects and better outcomes. And thirdly, leveraging allows us to support areas that are strategically important but not always easy to finance: innovative start-ups, scale-ups, new technologies. In this way the EU budget can play a catalytic role. It can reduce risks, it can help channel private capital towards European projects. And that is extremely important in view of our work in the Savings and Investment Union. There is another linkage between the EU budget and financial markets. Since the outbreak of Corona, joint borrowing, decided by Member States, has become a recurring feature of our response to unprecedented crises. We started with SURE and NGEU, but Member States have since entrusted the Commission with additional mandates, like SAFE and the support loans to Ukraine. Commissioner Kubilius, who will join us today, has seen the difference. When he became the defence Commissioner we had 1.5 billion euro until the end of 2027 to spend on defence. And now as you know, thanks to that tool, borrowing on the financial markets, the EU Budget is supporting investments at the scale of 150bn euro. Today, there is solid demand for EU bonds. And this is not surprising, since they offer good value for investors. And to describe how good value they offer we can take inspiration from the Village People and their song YMCA. And don't worry, I will not start to dance. YMCA sums up very nicely what are the key features of EU bonds. Y stands for Yield. EU bonds offer a very attractive yield. M stands for Market. We now have a fully-fledged developed market architecture for EU bonds, with a very high degree of liquidity. C stands for Country-risk. As EU bonds are multi-national bonds, they come with an in-built protection against country risk. And finally A. Actually I should say triple A. Because they are triple-A rated bonds. And therefore they are very safe. Ladies and gentlemen, the debate about the EU budget often starts and ends with numbers. But it is not only about that. It is also about deciding where European action can make the greatest difference. And about designing financial tools that allow every euro to go further. And that will be the topic of our today's conference. Thank you. SPEECH/26/1512 Press contacts: Isabel OTERO BARDERAS (+32 2 29 66925) Balazs UJVARI (+32 2 29 54578) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email
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