The EU budget

This chapter focuses on the paradoxical and contradictory position of the European Union (EU) budget within the general framework of European integration. It presents an institutionalist argument: the content and structure of the EU budget is the result of the procedural set-up that governs budgetary decision-making at the EU level, the EU budgetary procedure corresponds by and large to an equilibrium among all actors involved. The Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) was a welcome development when it was first introduced in 1988. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, EU budgetary negotiations had been characterised by confrontations between the European Parliament and the Council that eventually led the European Parliament to reject entire draft budgets. The current procedures reflect the fact that the political acceptance for significant moves towards fiscal federalism has not emerged even though further EU integration in terms of pooling of sovereignty in non-budgetary policy fields happened over the years.