SOTEU2025

Von der Leyen tiptoed around the sore points of her July pitch to centralise the EU's next long-term budget: more power to the Commission, a sidelined Parliament, and massive cuts to region and farmer subsidies.

Instead, she played up the easier sells: more money for clean tech, digital, and research. Her proposal for stronger media support and higher rule-of-law conditionality  drew noise from the fringes but landed well with most in the room.

Her closest brush with controversy came on farm funding. She insisted “ringfenced” support can be topped up by member states and that “farmers need fair competition.” 

But the Parliament doesn't agree. Just yesterday, leading MEPs on budget negotiatiors said her plan would undermine fair competition among farmers.