Greening Public Budgets across the EU

Greening Public Budgets across the EU

The European Commission supports ten EU Member States – Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain – in aligning their public budgets with EU climate and environmental objectives. Through technical guidance, training, and peer exchanges, it aims to strengthen green budgeting practices, improve tracking of green spending, and foster knowledge sharing, thereby contributing to more sustainable and transparent public finances.

Context

EU Member States face growing requirements to integrate EU climate and environmental objectives into public finances, amid challenges such as limited experience in green budgeting and gaps in data management. 

To address this, jointly with Member States, the European Commission developed the EU Green Budgeting Reference Framework and delivered a training programme (2021–2024) reaching 1,200 participants from 23 Member States. Building on this foundation, the current project supports the ten Member States in strengthening budgeting frameworks, improving green and brown tagging methodologies, conducting environmental impact assessments, and aligning national budgets with the European Green Deal and the new EU economic governance framework.

Support to be delivered

The project commenced in July 2025 and is expected to be completed by June 2028. It supports the ten Member States in developing and implementing green budgeting practices. The support focuses on refining green and brown budget tagging methodologies, building capacity through training and peer exchanges, conducting environmental impact assessments, and strengthening governance frameworks. 

Guidance is also provided on monitoring, reporting, and aligning national budgets with EU climate and environmental objectives. All activities are delivered in close cooperation with national authorities to ensure tailored support and national ownership. The project is implemented in cooperation with Expertise France and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Expected results

Provided that the recommendations are implemented at the institutional level, the project is expected to help the ten Member States establish the technical, operational, and governance frameworks needed to embed green budgeting practices. 

The support aims to strengthen capacity to track and report green and brown expenditures, conduct environmental impact assessments, and integrate EU climate and environmental objectives into public finances. 

Over the longer term, this is expected to contribute to more transparent and effective budgeting, better alignment of public spending with EU climate priorities, enhanced policy-making, and improved collaboration among ministries and agencies involved in green finance.