The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is the seven-year legal framework for the EU budget. It serves as the binding medium-term financial planning instrument of the European Union and allocates budgets to the EU’s main policy priorities. 

In June 2011, the European Commission came up with its first proposal for the next MFF. Further detailed initiatives were put forward since then. Apart from reforming main EU policies (Common Agricultural Policy, Cohesion Policy, Research and Innovation Policy, etc.) the main elements of this reform will concern the structural aspect of the EU budget: the way it is funded and the way it operates.

This briefing paper discusses all these initiatives and offers an evaluation from a Green perspective, as well as highlights specific concerns for some Member States in that field. 

This report is the last one of a series on the EU policy priorities for the year 2012. Similar papers have been published on Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Energy, Fisheries Policy, Climate Change, Transport and Environment.