The EU is in the process of negotiating its 2014-20 financial framework. Failure to reach an agreement would imply a delay in the preparation of the strategic plans each member state puts together to explain how it will use Structural and Cohesion Funds. Even if solutions are found – for example annual renewals of the budget based on the previous year's figures – there will be political and institutional costs. EU leaders have too often and too forcefully advocated the use of the EU budget for growth to be able to drop the idea without consequences.
• The overwhelming attention paid to the size of the budget is misplaced. EU leaders should instead aim to make the EU budget more flexible, safeguard it from future political power struggles, and reinforce assessment of the impact of EU funded growth policies.
• To improve flexibility a commitment device should be created that places the EU budget above continuous political disagreement. We suggest the creation of a European Growth Fund, on the basis of which the European Commission should be allowed to borrow on capital markets to anticipate pre-allocated EU expenditure, such as Structural and Cohesion Funds. Markets would thus be a factor in EU budget policymaking, with a potentially disciplining effect. Attaching conditionality to this type of disbursement appears legitimate, as capital delivered in this way is a form of assistance.
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imthiar 8th February 2013
20% of all funding towards climate action! well sized and progressive where it counts!
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vdbranden 7th February 2013
budgets should be lowered where overspending is done(salaries) and increased where the need is big with a clear roadmap ,for instance in youth unemployment to avoid what's happened in poland with roadworks....
otherwise its just political promises with no follow-up and a 50/50 chance it will all go wrong because nothing is easier than spending other's money!!!!
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vdbranden 7th February 2013
Good proposals but how many people get fired in the commission?we never hear of this.Incompetent people should not stay in the commission. its too easy to ask always for more ,never seeing whats really happening,never having to justify what they are doing .Put some constraints on them just like in the private sector and it will quickly change how people behave with other's people's money. its always easy to spend others money.stop the spending for the spending. EU is not Disneyland but in charge of broken nations!!like spain,greece etc and where EU has its responsabilty. because of a lack of what is said before. If there would have been more controll we would not be in the actual mess.its always the same with politics,promises and promises, and poor results,because anyway 4 years later someone else will have to clean up the sh....,so why bother?
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frans de braekeleer 28th November 2012
Seems good idea to give more attention to flexibility, but as long as the press in all member states is more focused on size, politicians will not move. Unless the milkman rings at least twice in Brussels.
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Laurent Couraudon 24th November 2012
Very interesting, very true, but also very theoritical.
Why should our Great National Prince-Electors suddently agree on this flexibility where they so much enjoy fighting for what they see as their immediate national interests?
Bus since I am also a dreamer, I think we should first agree on the objectives of this budget, and on who want really to be part of it, then the preocedure should come naturally.
If you read French you can read my post on ffe-modem.org l'échec du budget non-européen.
Laurent
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benedicta marzinotto 26th November 2012
I agree, very first mistake was failure to discuss and agree on the objectives of the EU budget. Once this is done, everything else will follow almost automatically, but to preserve it you also need a structure where politicians have no room to change their minds.
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