The draft EU budget for 2019 includes two amounts for each programme to be financed – commitments and payments. "Commitments" refers to the funding that can be agreed in contracts in a given year; "payments" to the money actually paid out. The proposed budget amounts to €166 billion in commitments (+3% over 2018) and €149 billion in payments (+3% over 2018).

Generally speaking, the EU budget is primarily an investment budget. Amounting to roughly 1% of EU GNI, and representing around 2% of all EU public spending, it aims to complement national budgets and implement priorities which all EU members have agreed upon.

About 94% of the EU budget funds real activities on the ground in EU countries and beyond. It goes to citizens, regions, cities, farmers, researchers, students, NGOs and businesses. The EU's administrative expenses account for about 6% of the total EU budget.