(23 May 2018) – The Commission today proposed the 2019 draft EU Budget of €166 billion in commitments, corresponding to a 3% increase over 2018.
The proposal is based on the premise that the United Kingdom, following its withdrawal as of 30 March 2019, will continue to contribute to and participate in the implementation of EU budgets until the end of 2020 as if it were a Member State.
The money specifically for supporting economic growth will total almost €80 billion in commitments in 2019. This includes increases in a number of flagship programmes:
• €12.5 billion (+8.4% over 2018) for research and innovation under Horizon 2020;
• €2.6 billion for education under Erasmus+ (+10.4% over 2018);
• €3.8 billion under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) (+36,4% over 2018) for infrastructure networks;
• a further €233.3 million for the Youth Employment initiative to support young people living in regions where youth unemployment is high, to be matched with funds from the European Social Fund.
The Commission expects the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes to remain at cruising speed in 2019, after encouraging signals end of last year at €57 billion (+2.8% over 2018) and the funding for agricultural policy to remain stable at almost €60 billion (+1.2% over 2018).