Funding plans

In line with established market practice and as part of its unified funding approach, the Commission publishes on a regular basis:

• An annual borrowing decision
• Semi-annual funding plans

The annual borrowing decision and the funding plan are key to ensure sound financial management, accountability and transparency in the implementation of EU's debt management operations.

The annual borrowing decision lays out the maximum amount of borrowing the Commission can execute in a given year. The semi-annual funding plan sets out the Commission's indicative issuance calendar and expected total issuance volumes for the forthcoming 6 months.

As part of its open and transparent communication to markets, the Commission publishes a quarterly newsletter updating investors of the latest developments in its borrowing and lending activities.

Annual borrowing decision

The annual borrowing decision sets a maximum ceiling on the borrowing operations the Commission can plan over a period of one year.

It also sets a range for maximum issuance amounts of long-term and short-term funding, limits for the repurchase transactions, the maximum average maturity of the EU's long-term funding and limits on the amount the Commission can issue in a single transaction.

Semi-annual funding plans

The Commission's 6-monthly funding plans map its planned borrowing in the coming 6 months, within the limits of the annual borrowing decision. Through its funding plans, the Commission manages market expectations and makes sure it can raise the necessary funds to cover its relevant payment needs.

To ensure predictability, the Commission regularly communicates key elements of the funding plan to market participants. In particular, the Commission publishes on a regular basis:

• The targeted amounts to be financed by EU-Bonds;
• The number and timing of the expected syndicated transactions;
• The target auction dates for EU-Bonds and EU-Bills issuances.

Latest funding plan

On 10 December 2024, the European Commission issued its semi-annual funding plan for the 6 months from January to end-June 2025. The Commission intends to issue up to €90 billion in EU-Bonds over the period, complemented by short-term funding. For 2025, the Commission anticipates issuing a total of around €160 billion in EU-Bonds, ensuring consistent support for its borrowing-based programmes. The exact funding target for the whole year will be communicated through the semi-annual funding planning for H2 2025 as funding needs are confirmed. 

Issuances will be executed under the unified funding approach, whereby the Commission issues single branded EU-Bonds, and internally allocates the proceeds according to the needs of the various policy programmes funded through bond issuances.
 

EU-Bonds

• The European Commission intends to issue €90 billion of long-term EU-Bonds between January and June 2025.
• The Commission will raise these funds over the seven EU-Bond auctions and six syndicated transactions planned during the period.  
• Bond issuance volumes via auctions are expected to increase during the semester in line with the increased funding target, keeping the auction share stable. This increase will be facilitated by the introduction of three-leg bond auctions during the semester, with an indicative start as of Q2 2025.
• All funds raised will be used to meet payments related to NextGenerationEU and additional payment needs that arise from other policy programmes financed by EU-Bonds (including support to Ukraine, the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans and Macro Financial Assistance programmes).
• EU-Bonds will continue to be issued using benchmark maturities from 3 to 30 years, with tap transactions and new lines, using auctions and syndications. The maturities selected for new lines will take into account market conditions and the need to bring liquidity to the EU curve. The EU’s tentative focus will be on the 3y, 10y and 20y maturities for new conventional benchmark bonds.  
• The Commission will continue to issue NextGenerationEU Green Bonds to finance the green component of the Recovery and Resilience Facility in line with Member States’ reported eligible green expenditures. The Commission’s preference will be to tap existing NGEU Green Bonds to improve liquidity before issuing new lines. 

EU-Bills

• The Commission will issue EU-Bills using 3-month, 6-month and (for the first time) 12-month tenors.
• The EU-Bills issuance schedule will continue in line with past practice, with EU-Bills auctions taking place twice per month, on the first and third Wednesday as a general rule.
• New 6-month and 12-month lines will be issued during the first auction of the month, while the second auction of the month will be used to tap already outstanding EU-Bills (as of H2 2025, previously issued 12-month lines will be used to tap the 6-month bucket as per issuance pattern established since 2021 on 3-month and 6-month lines).

Issuance calendar

Issuance weeks for EU-Bonds syndicated transactions:

EU-Bonds auction dates:

 

EU-Bills auction dates:

*The calendar information is indicative and transactions might be cancelled or additional transactions may be executed.

The next funding plan, to cover the period from July to end-December 2025, will be published in June 2025.

Past funding plans

Documents

All documents linked to the EU unified funding approach are available in the documents' section of our website.