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, the average maturity of the EU's long-term funding and limits the amount the Commission can issue in a single transaction.

Semi-annual funding plans

The Commission's 6-monthy funding plan map the 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 for the 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 12 December 2023, the European Commission issued its semi-annual funding plan for the period January to end-June 2024. The Commission intends to issue up to €75 billion in EU-Bonds between January and end-June 2024, complemented by short-term EU-Bills.

Issuances will be executed under a 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 up to €75 billion in EU-Bonds between January and June 2024.
• The issuance calendar for H1 2024 foresees 6 syndications and 7 auctions.
• EU-Bonds will continue to be issued in benchmark maturities from 3 to 30 years, using tap transactions and new lines.
• The maturities for new lines will depend on market conditions taking into account the intention to bring liquidity to the curve where more is needed (with a tentative focus on 3y, 10y, 15y and possibly 30y for conventional lines).
• The Commission will also continue to issue NGEU Green Bonds via taps. One new long-dated green bond may also be considered, depending on market conditions.

EU-Bills

• The Commission will issue EU-Bills using 3-month and 6-month tenors following a pattern of two bill auctions per month as per the planned calendar below.
• As before, new 6-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 issuances.

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 2024, will be published in June 2024.

Past funding plans

Documents

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