Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel GlÃ¶ckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

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The medium-term financial framework The medium-term financial framework provides a stable, usually seven year, planning horizon for the EU budget. To alter the detail of a financial framework during its life is a complex procedure, subject to unanimity, and therefore only usually undertaken in the face of absolute necessity. This system gives comfort to net contributors because it places an upper limit on expenditure in the medium-term, it also gives comfort to net beneficiaries because it guarantees to a large extent expenditures over the same period. However the financial framework freezes expenditure in wide policy chapters at a time when needs are changing rapidly. It does therefore make sense to think about increasing the flexibility within this system. One positive change would be to reduce the length of the financial framework to 5 years and bring it in line with the lifespan of the Commission and elections in the European Parliament. This does not require a Treaty change. However increasing the role of the European Parliament, which would also be desirable, does require a Treaty change. The mid-term budget review and the outlook for budget reform The negotiation of the medium-term financial perspective of the European Union is usually one of the most highly contested negotiations that take place in the Union. Decisions on the annual budget of the Union can also be contentious. At the end of the negotiation of the Financial Perspective for the years 2007-2013, it was agreed that there should be a mid-term review of the financing of the Union, in which both the future financing of the Common Agricultural Policy and the British budget rebate would be included. These two subjects have traditionally fired up even the most moderate of the EU member states. The European Commission published its consultation paper on the midterm review in September 2007. Since then the public has been invited to make representations to the Commission on the future of the budget. A large number of contributions have been received and published on the web and a major conference was held in November 2008 during which the results of the consultation were discussed. However, in spite of this apparent hectic activity, EU budget reform has dropped completely out of the political debate on the future of the 74 After the crisis: A new socio-economic settlement for the EU
European Union. Budget reform does not appear amongst the priorities on the Commission President’s website, a trawl across the main thinktanks in Europe also brings little on the budget, and it is a subject which is practically absent in the media. It is worthwhile asking why this subject today is so uninteresting both to the politicians and to the general public. Surely the budget should be a core element of the reform to make the EU fit for purpose in the global age. The simplest reason is of course that there are very many important subjects on the agenda of the Union today. Climate change, energy security, the world financial crisis, economic reform in the member states and the future of the euro, and foreign relations, including the relationship with Russia and the situation in Iran, are just a few of the complex problems the Union is currently dealing with. The negotiation of the next financial perspective after 2013 will not get under way until the second half of 2010, long after the current Commission comes to an end and a year after the elections to the European Parliament. Several member states will also have elections between now and then. Why then should today’s politicians get involved in a subject which their successors will have to deal with? There are however more complex reasons. For the European Commission there seems little reason to disturb the relatively smooth cooperation with the member states by pushing a budgetary reform which is bound to create major problems between them. For the member states, there is little interest in unnecessarily introducing a subject which will cause domestic problems-this is of course particularly true for the United Kingdom. Indeed several of the member states appear to have concluded that the current financial perspective is not such a bad deal after all. One might for instance expect Poland to be in favour of negotiating the end of budget rebates for the net contributors to the budget, towards which it has to pay. However if reform of the British budget rebate implies thorough reform of the CAP, and perhaps the introduction of member state co-financing, then it is best for Poland not to force the pace on budgetary reform. Finally for the European Parliament, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty would be a significant change to its budgetary power. The distinction between obligatory and non-obligatory expenditure would disappear allowing the EP to seriously consider agricultural expenditure for the first time. Lisbon would introduce the medium-term Financial Perspective into the Treaties and while the Council remains in charge, it would have to obtain the consent of the European Parliament before agreeing itself by Chapter 4 – Alan Mayhew 75
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Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckl
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Published in 2009 by Policy Network
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4 After the crisis: A new socio-eco
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6 After the crisis: A new socio-eco
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Simona Milio is associate director
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Chapter 10 Simona Milio ...........
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Before the crash: the EU as a parti
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liberalisation. The City of London
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of the Financial Services Action Pl
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confidence and world trade, to whic
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following the ECJ’s controversial
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signals are in place to promote a n
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Page 34 and 35: Target financial stability The EMU
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Page 94 and 95: emanate from demographic trends. Ho
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(74), and road vehicles (78). On th
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Towards a less dogmatic approach Wh
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128 After the crisis: A new socio-e
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will be reinforced rather than cont
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Where do we come from? The EU agend
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However, so far the flexicurity app
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existing practices of wage subsidie
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minimum wage tend to have higher pr
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commitment for employment”, 18 un
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provisions for minority protection,
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eflected in the objective of the Li
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instruments have been criticised fo
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However, the countries’ planning
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ich developed country pre-occupatio
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emerging markets (indeed the rules
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Energy and carbon use depend on fou
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concentrate on the size of the cake
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esurgence of long-term unemployment
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22 Financial Services Authority (FS
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7 This idea is not new. The 1970 We
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33 Arpaia, Alfonso, Declan Costello
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9 See Garabiol-Furet, M.-D. (2006)
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Chapter 11 1 Victor, D.G. (2006)
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Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel GlÃ¶ckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

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