Memo

Memo to the commissioner responsible for the European Union budget

Publishing date: 04 September 2024
Authors: Marco Buti Zsolt Darvas Armin Steinbach

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You take over responsibility for the European Union budget at a time of climate emergency, a war near the EU’s border, heightened security risks, increased global protectionism, slow productivity growth and a weak European economic outlook. Demands for new EU spending are mounting. Whilst opinion polls suggest significant alignment among EU citizens on what the EU’s priorities should be, member countries are divided over the size of the EU budget and how to finance it. Old questions about the value added of traditional EU policies continue to resurface. Following the mid-term reviews of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the 2021-2026 Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the proposal for the next MFF starting in 2028 should be prepared soon.

Key actions:

Propose substantial budget reform by mid 2025
Focus on funding for European public goods
Push to unblock decision-making

Read the full memo by clicking the download button at the top of this page.

About the authors

Marco Buti

Marco Buti, holds the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Chair in economic and monetary integration at the European University Institute. Former Chief of Staff of the Commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, and until 2019, Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission (DG ECFIN).
Zsolt Darvas

Zsolt Darvas is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and a part-time Senior Research Fellow at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He joined Bruegel in 2008 as a Visiting Fellow, and became a Research Fellow in 2009 and a Senior Fellow in 2013.

From 2005 to 2008, he was the Research Advisor of the Argenta Financial Research Group in Budapest. Before that, he worked at the research unit of the Central Bank of Hungary (1994-2005) where he served as Deputy Head.

Zsolt holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Corvinus University of Budapest where he teaches courses in Econometrics but also at other institutions since 1994. His research interests include macroeconomics, international economics, central banking and time series analysis.
Armin Steinbach

Armin Steinbach is a non-resident fellow at Bruegel as well as Jean Monnet Professor of Law and Economics at HEC Paris and Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn.

Previously, Armin held academic posts at Oxford University, European University Institute Florence, University of St. Gallen and Harvard University. He served as civil servant in the German Ministries of Finance and of the Economy as well as in the German parliament. He practiced as lawyer with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels and at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. The WTO lists him as panelist serving the WTO Dispute Settlement Body.

Armin has been a contributor and commentator to Financial Times, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Le Monde, Les Echos, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit, and Handelsblatt.

Armin obtained his Habilitation from University of Bonn. He holds a Doctor of Laws from University of Munich, Doctor of Economics from University of Erfurt, and Master in Economics from Humboldt University Berlin.