BRUSSELS ― The European Commission has proposed a central EU budget of €1.816 trillion for the seven-year period from 2028 after days of fraught internal negotiations.

That figure would represent an increase in the European Union’s spending power compared with the current budget that has run from 2021.

The members of the Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, finally settled on this number on Wednesday, meaning that total spending would rise to 1.26 percent of the EU’s gross national income, compared with around 1.1 percent over the current period.

The Commission claimed that its budget will amount to €2 trillion because it’s factoring in a rise in inflation over the coming years and including the repayments of its post-Covid debt. However, Siegfried Mureșan, the budget negotiator for von der Leyen’s own center-right European People’s Party, described this method as “misleading.” His criticism was echoed by lawmakers from across the spectrum.

The announcement fires the starting gun on at least two years of ― probably bad-tempered and tortuous ― wrangling with the European Parliament and national capitals, all of whom must approve the final sum. Many governments are likely to push for a smaller budget, or one with different priorities, than the Commission is proposing.

European budget commissioner Piotr Serafin presented the plan on Wednesday afternoon in the Parliament’s budget committee.

Commissioners approved the spending plan after their heads of cabinets ironed out the most sensitive issues during two days of almost non-stop negotiations in Brussels.

The overall €1.816 trillion figure is expressed in 2025 prices and compares with a budget of €1.2 trillion between 2021 and 2027 in current prices. A planned large increase from the previous seven-year period is not unusual at this stage.