The EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will run from 2014 to 2020 and will dictate much of what the EU does until the end of this decade. The Government oppose any increase in real terms, and this position has dominated their response to the Commission’s proposals. This report considers the Commission’s detailed proposals for this seven year budget in the context of the euro area crisis and uncertain growth figures for the start of the next MFF. It aims to take each of the key proposals on its own merit and makes recommendations for both budgetary restraint and budgetary increases where these are justified. The Committee are broadly supportive of the Commission’s proposed budget and reforms for cohesion funding, including the Common Strategic Framework, which forms part of the Commission’s simplification agenda. However they remain opposed to the proposal to introduce macroeconomic conditionality; withdrawing funds from an ailing economy only risks making matters worse.