The European Commission presented its proposal for the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020. This marks the beginning of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (the member states), which have to agree on the principles, priorities and concrete numbers until the autumn of 2012. This will be one of the hottest issues next year, in the context of the economic challenges, the Union is facing, and the serious differences between the positions of Parliament and Council on key issues. In general, Parliament calls for a budget increase to meet the commitments of the Union under the Europe 2020 strategy. The Commission proposal expresses the same spirit. Member States, however, insist EU budget to reflect the austerity measures, implemented at national level, and even to be frozen until 2020. euinside will follow the progress of negotiations and will present in detail both the Commission's proposal and the positions of Parliament and Council, as we did in terms of the current MFF 2007-2013.