The European Council president is consulting leaders across the bloc as negotiations over defence, competitiveness, enlargement and the EU’s next seven-year budget move toward a decisive phase.

European Council President António Costa has begun an intensive round of meetings with national leaders across the European Union, launching what is effectively an early political campaign to build consensus around the bloc’s next major strategic choices.

Costa’s annual “Tour des Capitales,” running from late August into September, is designed to collect the positions of EU governments ahead of negotiations over the Union’s long-term budget for 2028-2034 and a broader political agenda dominated by defence, competitiveness, enlargement and strategic autonomy.

The exercise comes at a particularly sensitive moment.

Europe is attempting simultaneously to strengthen its military capabilities, support Ukraine, finance technological and industrial modernization, secure its borders and maintain traditional spending priorities ranging from agriculture to regional development.

That combination has transformed the next EU budget into far more than an accounting exercise.

During a meeting in Prague on 27 August, Costa described the negotiations as reaching a “decisive moment,” arguing that Europe’s geopolitical environment had fundamentally changed since the current budget was agreed in 2020. He highlighted defence and security, competitiveness, innovation and strategic resilience among the areas requiring greater investment.

His earlier stops illustrated the political differences that will shape those negotiations.

In Estonia, discussions with Prime Minister Kristen Michal included continued support for Ukraine and stronger European defence, particularly in response to threats facing the EU’s eastern frontier. In Slovakia, Costa’s talks with Prime Minister Robert Fico addressed the future budget, enlargement and European strategic autonomy.

The challenge for Brussels is balancing those priorities while preserving unity among governments with very different economic structures and security concerns.

Eastern and northern European states have generally pushed for stronger defence commitments and sustained support for Kyiv. Southern countries remain highly attentive to migration, energy and regional investment. Major net contributors want tighter spending discipline, while countries benefiting heavily from cohesion and agricultural funds are reluctant to see traditional programmes weakened.

At the same time, Europe faces pressure to improve its economic competitiveness against the United States and China, particularly in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, energy technologies and critical infrastructure.

The next budget will therefore reveal what Europe considers strategically indispensable.

Costa’s capital-by-capital diplomacy is intended to identify areas where compromise remains possible before formal negotiations harden national positions.

The process will not produce immediate agreement. EU budget negotiations traditionally involve prolonged bargaining over contributions, rebates and spending priorities.

But the political significance is already clear.

Europe is debating not simply how much money it should spend, but what kind of geopolitical actor it intends to become.

And the answers negotiated over the coming months could shape the European Union well into the 2030s.