Green Budgeting in the EU: Making it work

Over the past five years, the European Commission has been assisting Member States in understanding the budgetary impact of environmental and climate policy and aligning budgetary decision-making with the green transition. Through the Green Budgeting Reference Framework (GBRF), best practice sharing, practical guidance and peer exchanges, Member States have been encouraged to adopt effective green budgeting practices.

As evidenced by the 2025 European Commission Survey on Green Budgeting, 20 Member States have implemented green budgeting tools (green budget tagging, ex ante environmental impact assessments, ex post environmental evaluations), a strong increase from 12 Member States in 2023. 

The conference highlighted achievements so far, with a focus on survey key findings and the governance dimension of the GBRF in the morning session. It invited participants to reflect on practical implementation challenges in group sessions. The afternoon session discussed the further development of the field: How to make best use of IT? What is the impact of green budgeting, is green budgeting making the budgets greener? And what is proposed for the next MFF? 

Key resources, including a copy of the GBRF, the survey results, documentation of the previous conferences, publications and information on training activities, are available on DG ECFIN’s webpage on green budgeting in the EU.