Strasbourg, France, Oct. 6, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese prime minister is to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, at a time when the European Union is in the midst of negotiations on the next EU budget, which will cover the period from 2028 to 2034.
Luís Montenegro will address the European Parliament at 10.30 local time (09.30 Lisbon time), after being received by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
The prime minister's speech will form part of the «This is Europe» series of debates, an initiative launched by Roberta Metsola in January 2022 which aims to give the heads of state and government of the European Union (EU) the opportunity to «share their vision for the future of Europe».
This speech coincides with the ongoing negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (the EU's budget), which the President of the European Council, António Costa, hopes to «finalise» by the end of the year.
In this context, it is expected that, by the end of the week, Ireland – which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU – will present its negotiating proposal for the next EU budget, which will then be debated by the heads of state and government at a summit in Brussels next week.
With just one week to go before that summit in Brussels, it is therefore expected that one of the key focuses of Luís Montenegro's speech today will be precisely the EU budget, as indicated by the European People's Party (EPP) – to which the PSD and the CDS belong – in a preview of the plenary session given last week.
The speech «comes at a crucial moment, as European leaders prepare to discuss the next Multiannual Financial Framework. It will be an opportunity to hear Portugal's priorities for Europe and the country's vision for a budget that strengthens security, competitiveness and cohesion», said an EPP adviser.
To date, the prime minister has insisted that it is essential for the budget to preserve the funds earmarked for cohesion policy, even going so far as to threaten to oppose any proposal involving cuts to those funds.
In this regard, just last week, Montenegro signed a letter alongside 16 other EU heads of state and government in which they once again called for the next budget to preserve both cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), warning that cuts to these areas would weaken public support for the EU.
This letter was in response to another letter signed by Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden – the largest net contributors to the EU budget – in which they called for cuts of «hundreds of billions of euros».
Following his speech in the chamber, Luís Montenegro will have lunch with the 21 Portuguese MEPs at the European Parliament, before returning to Lisbon.
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