A Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the Climate

State of Results:

• The project successfully included a wide range of civil society organisations from all over Europe in its outreach campaign for a greener EU budget. Participants were involved in the process through questionnaires, interviews, working groups, workshops in Berlin and Warsaw, webinars and a conference in Brussels. 
• The project published a report Climate Change and the EU Budget. Its main message was that the MFF 2021-2027 is the last investment cycle to help change course on climate performance. It calculated that additional investments in climate action of around €180bn to €270bn per year were needed to meet the EU 2030 climate and energy targets and it stated that all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies must be removed. The report also recommended to strengthen financial and strategic links between MFF, NECPs and the European Semester and to insist on ‘climate proof’ Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes. 
• The project developed a briefing A budget to address the climate crisis on the EU’s plans to fund and boost climate action as part of the EU budget for 2021-2027. The briefing provided policy guidelines and recommendations for EU institutions and national governments on how to finance a European Green Deal and ensure a smooth transition to a climate neutral economy. The document also advised civil society organisations on how to engage in the process and ensure a consistent and independent monitoring of progress in the coming years. 
• Project results and recommendations for the future MFF were distributed to various decision makers and policy leaders at the EU-, national and regional level. The main demands were also reiterated in several letters to member states, including a Letter to Heads of State before a Council meeting in Brussels in February 2020 and a Letter to EU Environment Ministers in December 2019. 
• Climate change mitigation now does play a stronger role in the programmes of the MFF and the recovery plan. The quota for climate-related expenditure in the EU budget was indeed increased from its former level of 20 percent to 30 percent.