What Happened Europe’s pandemic-induced economic crisis will force EU members to rethink the size and priorities of the bloc’s next seven-year budget, which should enter force in 2021. In an April 16 speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the new EU budget should be "the mothership of our recovery" and called for a "huge amount of investment" to "rebuild the single market" after the COVID-19 outbreak subsides. This suggests that the European Union will reconsider proposed spending cuts in areas such as cohesion funds, while areas that were expected to receive more money, such as the fight against climate change, may not receive as much funding as originally intended. With a size of roughly 1 trillion euros ($1.09 trillion), the seven-year budget pays for most of the European Union’s policies, including subsidies for farmers and infrastructure projects.