WHAT TO REFORM IN THE EUROPEAN BUDGET? SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE STAKES OF THE CURRENT BUDGET REVIEW PROCESS

• Main Author: Dragoş Negrescu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Institute of Romania 2008-04-01
• Series: Romanian Journal of European Affairs
• Subjects: EU budget; EMU; European tax; VAT
• Online Access: http://www.ier.ro/documente/rjea_vol8_no1/RJEA_Vol8_No1_What_to_Reform_in_the_European_Budget_Some_Reflections_on_the_Stakes_of_the_Current_Budget_Review_Process.pdf

The EU budget is the financial tool supporting European integration. The way it has developed over decades, both as concerns revenues and expenditure, superposed to a complex decision-making process, where member states retain veto rights in crucial respects, means that it currently displays a significant inertia, while its size and structure are not the most appropriate for endowing the Union with the means allowing it to best react to the present-day challenges. Tensions are also rising between the national interests of individual members and the common interest, which previous attempts to reconcile by way of special treatments granted to some countries are clearly unsustainable, while inducing additional rigidities to the budgetary construction. This obviates the need for a comprehensive reform, which the 2008/2009 budget review that the Commission was mandated to undertake may set in motion. The following paper attempts at taking stock of the most significant problems in need of a solution and to explore the most appropriate ways available for tackling them.