Europe and defence, Éric Zemmour
Place in the European Union: EU budget brought back to its pre-Covid level (Knafo plan, €14bn)
Direction of change: decrease, compared with current law.
The lever. Relationship with the European treaties and rules: deepening, renegotiation, primacy of national law, exit. Direction rule: ↑ deeper European integration.
« Retour au budget de l’UE pré-Covid et économies sur la dotation française. »1Translation by the editorsReturn to the pre-Covid EU budget and savings on the French contribution.
Words of Sarah Knafo, MEP, Reconquête, budget2027.fr, « 140 milliards d’économies par an : le plan de Sarah Knafo » (page lue le 13 octobre 2026), 13 October 2026. Words of an associate of the candidate: they do not formally commit the candidate.
Link to the candidacy: Éric Zemmour adopts this plan as his own: « Nous, avec Sarah Knafo, nous voulons faire 140 milliards d'euros de baisses » [“We, with Sarah Knafo, want to make 140 billion euros of cuts”] (BFMTV, 17 September 2026).
No programme released. Positions taken from public statements, words of associates or documents of the candidate’s party, each dated and sourced; last recorded on 18 October 2026.
Encoding
| Parameter | Current law | Proposed | Effective date or horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Levy on revenue for the European Union (gross French contribution) | 28.44 €bn | 24.86 €bn (assumption by the editors, see the costing) | Full year, current €bn |
Costing
Announced by the candidate
+€14bn
per year, gain for the public accounts. €14bn of savings (Sarah Knafo's plan, measure 15).
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
+€3.6bn
per year for the public accounts, saving.
The calculation
- Levy on revenue for the European Union (gross French contribution): (24.86 − 28.44) ÷ -1 = 3.58 times “€1bn less in French contribution compared with the levy voted for 2026 (€28.44bn, Finance Act for 2026, art. 143)”, each a gain of €1bn (1 to 1).
Assumption by the editors. Measure from Sarah Knafo's plan (budget2027.fr), which the candidate calls « la matrice de mon programme économique » [“the matrix of my economic programme”]: counted as his position. Reading adopted: the French contribution brought back to its pre-Covid level, the levy executed in 2019 (€21.025bn), expressed in 2026 euros using the Insee consumer price index (all households, France): 2025 average relative to the 2019 average, 120.95 / 104.23 = 1.1604 (base 2015, series 001759970), then average of the first nine months of 2026, 101.88 (base 2025, series 011814630), i.e. a deflator of 1.1822: €24.86bn, against €28.44bn voted for 2026, i.e. a gain of €3.58bn, the reduction being assumed to be obtained. Other reading, the 2019 level in current euros (€21.025bn): a gain of €7.41bn, upper bound of reading, not adopted (it compares 2019 euros with 2026 euros). The plan's €14bn is probably compared with the proposed 2028-2034 framework (€38bn on average), which has not been adopted.
Figure announced by the candidate: no gap calculated: costing based on an assumption by the editors.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Constitution, art. 88-1 (participation in the EU); TEU and TFEU treaties; new European fiscal rules of 2024. Levy on revenue for the EU: €28.44bn in the finance act for 2026 (art. 143; €28.8bn in the initial bill), compared with €23.1bn in 2025. France's share of EU financing: 17.2% in 2024. Net accounting balance: -€7.9bn in 2024 and -€9.3bn in 2023, France being the 2nd largest net contributor. Returns: €16.4bn a year on average. Under the 2028-2034 financial framework proposed by the Commission, the average annual levy would rise from €26bn (current framework) to €38bn.
Horizon. Full year, current €bn. In 2032, the 2028-2034 financial framework brings the contribution to €38bn on average according to the Commission's proposal.
Limits. The contribution is set by the « ressources propres » (own resources) decision (unanimity and ratification) and by the multiannual financial framework: a unilateral reduction would breach the treaties. The “exit” option is a static balance calculated by the editors. Low: 2024 balance (7.9). Central: voted 2026 levy of 28.44 minus 16.4 of average returns, i.e. 12.04. High: 38 (average proposed for 2028-2034) minus 16.4, i.e. 21.6. It ignores the returns that would have to be funded nationally (PAC: France receives 18.5% of the agricultural policy), customs duties, access to the single market, the cost of debt and the French share of the European debt linked to the recovery plan (extra contribution of about €2.5bn per year from 2028 according to the Cour des comptes, for lack of new own resources). It is not a net gain. The levy voted for 2026 is €28.44bn (finance act for 2026, art. 143), not €28.8bn (initial bill). Freezing at the 2025 level brings in 28.44 − 23.10 = €5.34bn according to amendment no. 1291 (GDR group), which proposes it. The contribution-ue parameter (rule on public bases, 18 October 2026, the same for all): a reduction in the contribution is costed on the levy voted for 2026, €28.44bn, assuming the reduction is obtained, as for leaving the EU (static costing; the means, a renegotiation requiring unanimity, is not assessed). A targeted net contribution (levy minus returns) is converted into a levy by adding the average returns, €16.4bn (Senate): a net contribution of €5bn is equivalent to a levy of €21.4bn, i.e. a gain of €7.04bn (only €2.9bn if one starts from the 2024 net accounting balance, €7.9bn). A return to the pre-Covid level is read on the levy executed in 2019, €21.025bn, in 2019 euros not updated: a gain of €7.41bn. Compared with the proposed 2028-2034 framework (€38bn on average), the gains would be higher, but this framework has not been adopted: it is not part of the baseline.
- Sénat, commission des finances, L'Essentiel PLF 2026, mission « Affaires européennes » (art. 45, prélèvement sur recettes UE, J.-M. Mizzon), 2025-10-28: « « prélèvement sur recettes au profit de l'Union européenne à 28,8 milliards d'euros, soit une progression substantielle de 24,6 % » ; « pour la France un PSR-UE annuel moyen qui progresserait de 26 milliards d'euros dans le CFP actuel à 38 milliards d'euros pour le prochain » »
- Sénat, note de présentation PLF 2026, « Affaires européennes », 2025-11: « « Avec un solde net estimé en 2024 à - 7,9 milliards d'euros (- 9,3 milliards d'euros en 2023) selon la méthode comptable, la France était le deuxième contributeur net » ; « sa clef de contribution cette année-là (17,2 %) » ; « Les retours budgétaires français (16,4 milliards d'euros en moyenne » »
- Assemblée nationale, amendement n° 1291 au PLF 2026 (n° 2247), présenté par M. Maurel et le groupe GDR, sur l'article relatif au prélèvement UE, 2026-01: « « À la fin, substituer au montant : « 28 439 880 549 € » le montant : « 23 098 097 974 € ». » ; « En limitant la contribution française au budget de l'UE à hauteur du montant de l'exercice précédent, cet amendement ajustera notre effort aux paramètres du CFP à venir et soulagera les charges publiques de 5,3 milliards d'euros. » »
- Constitution, art. 88-1: « « La République participe à l'Union européenne constituée d'États qui ont choisi librement d'exercer en commun » »
- Loi de finances pour 2026, texte définitif (Assemblée nationale, texte adopté n° 227, 2 février 2026), article 143 ; loi n° 2026-103 du 19 février 2026, 2026-02-02: « « Le montant du prélèvement effectué sur les recettes de l'État au titre de la participation de la France au budget de l'Union européenne est évalué pour l'exercice 2026 à 28 439 880 549 €. » »
- Assemblée nationale, commission des finances, rapport sur le projet de loi de règlement du budget 2019, annexe n° 45 « Affaires européennes », 2020-06: « « Le prélèvement sur recettes au profit de l'Union européenne s'est établi à 21,025 milliards d'euros en 2019, alors que la loi de finances initiale pour 2019 prévoyait un PSR-UE de 21,443 milliards d'euros. » »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- budget2027.fr, « 140 milliards d’économies par an : le plan de Sarah Knafo » (page lue le 13 octobre 2026), 13 October 2026. Words of Sarah Knafo, MEP, Reconquête. Words of an associate of the candidate: they do not formally commit the candidate. Read the source (budget2027.fr, « 140 milliards d’économies par an : le plan de Sarah Knafo » (page lue le 13 octobre 2026)).
Contest this encoding (prefilled email; procedure and deadlines)