The paper aims to analyse how the European Commission’s proposal for the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) makes use of a discursive shift to shape the political dynamics of upcoming budget negotiations. Building on existing research on EU budget politics, negotiation dilution, and discursive institutionalism, the article compares the language, structure, and framing devices of the current 2021–2027 MFF with those of the new proposal. A preliminary analysis shows 2 relevant shifts.

First, the proposal replaces the former emphasis on cohesion, shared values, and functional policy domains with a overarching narrative centred on sovereignty, strategic capacities, and competitiveness. This reframing positions the MFF as an instrument of collective geopolitical agency rather then redistributive in nature, thereby reducing the visibility of the discourse around net-payers and net-beneficiaries, effectively shifting the attention from “who gets what” to “what Europe must achieve together.”

Second, the proposal systematically deploys “streamlining” language (e.g. simplification, consolidation, fewer programmes, more flexibility, crisis-readiness) to justify substantial restructuring of expenditure headings. This portrays politically sensitive reforms as technical improvements, helping to neutralise potential resistance and potentially limiting dilution during intergovernmental negotiations.

Through qualitative content analysis of official texts, the paper aims to demonstrate how the combination of narrative reframing and procedural framing constitutes a deliberate discursive strategy aimed at pre-structuring the negotiations ahead. The findings contribute to scholarship on EU budget politics, agenda-setting power, and the role of language in shaping distributive bargaining.