EU budget: Where the money goes
For the first time EU leaders have agreed to cut the multi-year budget, under pressure from the UK and some other countries.
Marathon talks in Brussels resulted in a 2014-2020 budget totalling 960bn euros (£812bn; $1.3tn) - the figure for commitments, that is, the maximum that the EU can spend. The actual payments are nearly always lower, and in this new budget the forecast payments total 908bn. Our graphic shows the commitments totals, in 2011 prices.
The commitments figure originally proposed by the European Commission was just above 1tn euros, so this deal - agreed in February - is a significant cut. Many MEPs in the European Parliament were unhappy about the cut. But parliamentary negotiators finally accepted the figures in June, after persuading ministers that unspent budget funds should be carried over to the following year, rather than returned to national budgets.