Central Europe in the European Budgetary Politics

In the last decade, it became increasingly difficult for the European Union (EU) Member States (MS) to decide how the common European budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), should be allocated between different priorities. The Union faces a raising number of challanges. External threats like migration, geopolitical tensions, and trade wars are more common. Such issues make the settlement of internal affairs troublesome as well. Areas such as digitalisation or artificial intelligence (AI), that have received little attention from high politics before, are turning into top priorities, along with the fight against climate change and the EU’s lengthy rule of law debate.