The future of the European Union budget : Competitiveness or inefficiency? : An analysis of reform options related to revenues and expenditures

Absztrakt (kivonat)

The purpose of this study is to introduce the ongoing debate on the structure of the European Union’s common budget and to identify the most important areas. The paper is commissioned by the Corvinus University of Budapest to meet the requirements of the M.A. programme. The method used in this paper is an extensive literature survey and an examination of relevant previous works, like the Sapir Report or the results of the 2008/09 EU Budget review, moreover relevant studies written by European think tanks. This essay discusses the present situation of the EU budget, analysing its structure in terms of revenue and expenditure, furthermore summarizes the ongoing debate on how to reform the budget of the European Union. Old budgetary conflicts among Member States, like debates about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), about the Structural and Cohesion Policy and about the net position of the individual Member States remained important issues. In addition to the old conflicts, new ones appeared, or in some cases, the old conflicts have become more intense due to certain development of the integration process. The EU budget can be one of the main tools for helping Europe's economy to recover after the financial crisis. The big question is whether the Member States of the EU are able to leave a few of their interest out of account in order to reach the common long-term aims. While the net contributors want to keep the volume of the budget as low as possible, the net beneficiaries are interested in a bigger budget. In order to have a chance to achieve a real budget reform, European policy-makers should really be open to new approaches and solutions. After years of failed attempts, the political climate is finally becoming ripe for a significant reform of the EU budget. It is hoped that the decision-makers will draft a better budget for 2014-2020.