Policy Paper 32
EU Budget Review: Addressing the Thorny Issues
Has the Commission taken the right choices in preparing the 2008/2009 budgetary review? Despite the fact that the Council mandate describes the review as a comprehensive assessment of both expenditures and revenues, there are hints that the Commission will concentrate on the first. In fact, in the Commission’s speeches and documents, the budgetary review is frequently portrayed as a policy-driven exercise to discuss future EU priorities and spending needs. This paper argues that such a narrow focus on expenditures is not coherent with the Commission’s ambition to use the review to catalyse a “further-reaching reform of EU finances”.
Has the Commission taken the right choices in preparing the 2008/2009 budgetary review? Despite the fact that the Council mandate describes the review as a comprehensive assessment of both expenditures and revenues, there are hints that the Commission will concentrate on the first. In fact, in the Commission’s speeches and documents, the budgetary review is frequently portrayed as a policy-driven exercise to discuss future EU priorities and spending needs. This paper argues that such a narrow focus on expenditures is not coherent with the Commission’s ambition to use the review to catalyse a “further-reaching reform of EU finances”.
An analysis of the political circumstances shaping the forthcoming budgetary negotiations indicates that the budgetary review, if conducted as a policy-driven debate on EU spending priorities, has little leap of triggering major changes in EU spending allocation, even less a major and far-reaching reform of the EU budgetary system. Apart from promoting a debate on EU spending priorities (a debate “within the rules”), it is argued that the 2008/2009 review should serve to discuss major reforms in the structure and functioning of the EU budgetary system (a debate “on the rules”).
SUR LE MÊME THÈME
ON THE SAME THEME
PUBLICATIONS
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The tools for protecting the EU budget from breaches of the rule of law
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Macro-economic impact of the EU Recovery Funds
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MÉDIAS
MEDIAS
Peut-on parvenir à une souveraineté économique européenne?
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FRANCE : L’UNION DES INDUSTRIES UTILISATRICES D’ÉNERGIE (UNIDEN) APPELLE AU RATIONNEMENT
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Le nouveau «plan de résilience» teste la solidarité européenne
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ÉVÉNEMENTS
EVENTS
Legitimacy Crisis and Autocratic Legalism: The case of the EU Budget
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Euroquestions | European Recovery : from planning to implementation
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Euroquestion | Quelle gestion de l’endettement public à la suite du Covid ?
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Euroquestions | The ongoing negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the European Recovery Plan: the state of play [Traduction simultanée vers le français disponible]
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Wébinaire | Le Parlement européen, acteur de la réponse à la crise du Covid-19
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Day of Progressive Economic Policy
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Webinar | The day after the Eurogroup Meeting : outcomes & opportunities
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Académie Notre Europe n°5 – Social Europe and Budget
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Florence, 17 October 2019 – The MFF and EU Policie 2021-2027
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Brussels, 16th October 2019 – Three solutions to finance the Green Deal
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Paris, 12 April 2019 – Session no.6 of the Académie Notre Europe: economic and monetary Union
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Brussels, 22 February 2019 – Post-Brexit EU budget: will it meet the challenge of the 21st century?
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11 octobre 2018 – La montée des banques promotionnelles en Europe contemporaine: potentiels et pièges
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Brussels, 9 October 2018 – What can NPBIs bring to the table for territorial investment?
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Strasbourg, 3 October 2018 – Presentation of the report “Making better use of public funding: The role of NPBIs in the next EU budget”
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Paris, 18 September 2018 – Towards a Juncker Plan closer to the territories?
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Paris, 12 June 2018 – Hearing by the Special Rapporteur on Budget for European affairs of the French National Assembly
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Paris, 6 June 2018 – What territorial cohesion to build in Europe?
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Brussels, 6 June 2018 – Cohesion Policy and the new MFF
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Paris, 28 May 2018 – Budget meetings: the new EU financial framework
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Budapest, 24 May 2018 – The Money Trail to Europe’s Future: the Multi-Annual Financial Framework and the EU’s priorities post-2020
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Nicosia, 16 March 2018 – The political landscape of EMU reform
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Sofia, 9 March 2018 – The future of the EU budget
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Brussels, 22 November 2017 – The future of the European budget
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Brussels, 25 September 2017 – Conference on the Future of EU Finances
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Paris, 21 July 2017 – The future of the Eurozone and the Multiannual Financial Framework
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