ABSTRACT
It may seem perverse to characterize the EU’s plannned budget of more than €93 billion for the financial year 2001 as relatively small. Yet it represents little more than 1% of the total GNP of the 15 member states, or about 2% of their aggregate public expenditure. The EU budget would barely cover one fifth of annual total public spending in Britain. On the other hand, because of the specific policy areas that are financed by the EU and their differential incidence across the member states, EU spending can have a big impact, for example on the agricultural sector and the less developed member states.
