100 posts
So where does EU money come from?
Ahead of our impending paper looking at the effectiveness or otherwise of the EU’s structural funds (watch this space) we came across this timely comment from Hungarian PM Viktor Orban - who has been subject to some (ehum) controversy over recent w...
British Rebate in Jeopardy thanks to David Cameron
Joseph Daul, leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), has just told the European Parliament that the rebate Britain receives from the EU must be put into question following David Cameron’s veto last week. David Cameron has certainly...
Beyond the “pilot era”: the impact of EU funding
There is one phenomenon that anyone more or less connected with the EU bubble (even loosely, based at local or national level) is quite familiar with: EU-funded projects. They have been around for the last decades and it seems like they are here to s...
Stingy EU 2012 budget: 0.98% of GNI
The Autumn 2011 European Economic Forecast from the Commission offers sobering reading about dashed hopes and danger zone entry, but let me pick just a detail. The predicted inflation rate is 3.0 per cent this year and 2.0 per cent in 2012 (against t...
EU: Can expansionary budgets save us from hardship?
Should Europe spend its way out of gloom and ever slowing growth? Are there real alternatives to the so called austerity measures, actually efforts to reduce government borrowing and eventually total debt to sustainable levels? EU government deficits...
The next President must call for an end to the European Parliament's costly "travelling circus" - and so must David Cameron
This week was another busy week in Strasbourg, Parliament's second seat. Due to a stipulation in the Treaties which govern the European Union, all 736 MEPs and many hundreds of staff members must decamp from Brussels to the Alsatian capital for the P...
Cardiff's Controversal Court of Auditors nomination
Last week the Irish Department of Finance discovered that it had counted the money borrowed by the Housing Finance Agency, leading it to overstate the Irish Government's debt by €3.6 billion. The Secretary General, Kevin Cardiff was called before a...
The EU Council’s right to initiative? – Less pay for EU officials requested
Everyone studying the European Union knows that it’s the Commission that proposes legislation. However, this doesn’t say the Commission is always at the origin of such proposals. The Lisbon Treaty for example grants the Council the right...
[2012 Budget] It’s official, the 2012 budget goes to conciliation.
It as expected, and the European Council just confirmed it – it almost went un-noticed in the shadow of the saving-the-euro summit - the EU 2012 budget as approved by the European Parliament is not “OK” for the chief of states or gove...
Barroso’s response
During the election campaign in Poland four musketeers – Polish Prime Minister Doland Tusk, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski and Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski – prom...
Today’s European Parliament budget move: a welcome alternative to austerity, or pissing in the wind?
The EU institutions are in the middle of their annual budget ping-pong. The European Commission proposes the annual budget, and then the European Parliament and Council of the European Union (where Member States are represented) decide on the budget.
The UK and the European Budget (13 October 2011)
THE COALITION AND EUROPE AFTER THE HONEYMOON - A NEW SERIES OF CONFERENCES 13 OCTOBER - THE UK AND THE EUROPEAN BUDGET EUROPE HOUSE, 32 SMITH SQUARE, LONDON SW1P 3EU 2.00 – 5.30 pm followed by a drinks reception In conjunction with the...
EU long-term budget battles
Negotiations on the EU's next long-term budget (2014-2020) have begun in earnest. These negotiations have traditionally proved complex and protracted, given the range of competing preferences held by Member States across a spectrum of issues. In t...
The EU travelling circus "among wild animals"
"Friends hold a summit among wild animals".In June the Bureau of Investigative Journalism disclosed the la...
Member states shoot across Commission's bow in budget talks
It's unclear whether European Commission is embarrassed by yesterday's rejection, by eight member states, of its 2014-2020 budget proposal (also known as the MFF). But it was certainly sent a stiff message by the biggest net contributors.After talk...
What does the budget mean?
Sophia Davidova, president of the Agricultural Economics Society, offers her assessment (reproduced from the AES Newsletter):The Communication from the European Commission on the budget for Europe 2020 is now in the public domain. Does it answer ques...
What future for the CAP financial discipline mechanism?
Whether direct payments could still be reduced under the financial discipline mechanism in the 2014-20 period and, if yes, how it would work has still not been clarified by the Commission.
The new EU budget: A missed opportunity
by Stephen TindaleThe European Commission published its proposals for the 2014-2020 EU budget at the end of June. The British media were incensed about proposals for new ‘EU taxes’, a planned nominal rise in EU budget spending at a time of auster...
Farmers' unions accept CAP budget proposals
Although they are concerned about particular aspects of the CAP budget proposals, such as the flexibility to transfer funds between the two pillars, farmers leaders are unsurprisingly generally satisfied with the deal against a background of fiscal a...
Myths and facts on the EU budget: The EU Commission doesn’t understand politics
The EU Commission has produced a website on “Myths and facts” about the EU budget. Now while some of the myths and facts corrections are just simple detail provisions, others are misleading, simple spin or, what I think, a misunderstandin...
The delicate exercise of the European Budget
(Version Francaise) The adoption last year of a European budget was not an easy task, the member states, following the lead trio M-C-S (Merkel-Cameron-Sarkozy), refused any significan increase. Since austerity was on the menu un member states, the un...
Letter from Commission to EP/Council re. EASO premises lease
I’m pasting contents of a very interesting letter from Mr. Stefano Maservisi (EU Commission) to Mr. Alain Lamassoure (Chairman of the EP Commitee on Budgets) and Ms. Eszter Kroll (Council Budget Committee President).The letter essentially deals wit...
PM Reinfeldt on Sweden in the EU
Here is just a quick post for those who may be interested in Sweden in the European Union, but may be unaware of the existence of the prime minister's speech and of the English version of it. Today, the prime minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, ou...
A better use for cohesion funding: pan-European projects
Let’s talk about cohesion funds. No, don’t close your eyes. Please try to stay awake: Cohesion funding is a European Union funding tool to support development activities in member states, most notably infrastructure construction. Yawn! Se...
The subsidies dilemma
A farmer writing to Farmers Weekly says of Caroline Spelman's support for phasing out the Single Farm Payment, 'Surely she must realise the subsidy keeps most farmers in business?'The correctness of this view in the short term, for livestock farmers...
Barroso is disengenuous about European Court of Auditors
Sorry about thism, but having added the film of Marta Andreasen's exchange with Barroso to my previous post, I think it deserves a closer look in a new one.And here I am thinking about Barroso's comments about describing the European Court of Auditor...
Marta calls for action on European Court of Auditors
Marta Andreasen is tonight asking the Commission what it plans to do about the revelations given that the UK government refuses to act."The allegations, which come as no surprise to me, pointed essentially to the lack of independence of EU auditors w...
EU budget debate advances
The likely size of the EU budget in the next financial perspective period (the length of which still remains to be decided, whether 2013-2000 or 2013-2024) became a little clearer last month with the publication of a letter to the President of the Eu...
EU Budget 2011 adopted
The European Parliament voted the EU budget 2011 – the first EU budget under the Lisbon Treaty.EUR 126.5 billion in payments have been adopted – an increase by 2.91% in comparison to the 2010 EU budget.With issues such as energy, the environment,...
EU Parliament Adopts EU 2011 Budget
The EU Parliament adopted the EU 2011 Budget at the European Parliament plenary session 13-16 December 2010.
EU summit: The British budget letter
On the second and final day of the EU summit, attention turned briefly away from the ongoing eurozone crisis and onto a letter the British government was circulating to get other member states to agree to freezes in the EU’s …Continue rea...
EU Summit: The budget elephant in the room
One of the more mysterious elements of the summit, which is now wrapping up, is the chatter about some of the EU’s big countries looking to cap community spending for up to a decade, as we reported in today’s paper. …Continue readin...
You could get a few rounds in with this
Just been wiffling through the General Budget of the European Union, as you do on a Saturday morning, and this little item in the Parliament budget caught my eye.Article 3 0 4 — Miscellaneous expenditure on meetings Item 3 0 4 0 — Miscellane...
EU-money to the mafia, the tobacco industry and multinationals?
Journalists have dug out the beneficiaries of EU-farmsubsidies for citizens to see them at Farmsubsidy.org. Now a new team of journalists has dug out the recipients of the other large lump on the EU-budget: The regional funding. In a unique cooperati...
UK, Netherlands block 2011 EU budget
European Parliament negotiators failed to overcome opposition from the UK and the Netherlands to the 2011 budget yesterday night (15 November), calling into question funding for ambitious projects such as the EU diplomatic service and the ITER nuclea...
David Cameron is seeking to appease Tory Eurosceptics rather than doing the Right Thing in Europe
Already threatened with splits at home, the coalition government has now turned its attention to the European Union. So what, you may think. Isn’t it always the case that the British make waves, not really signing up to the European programme a...
Those Pesky Parliamentarians
Tsk. Those parliamentarians, eh? They clearly don't know how politics works; you don't have to pay any attention to the projects you set up or even actually pay for them, you just announce them to great communique-filled media fanfair. If they don't...
EU Budget Veto 2011: what, why, and where next?
WHAT HAS HAPPENED The EU's annual budget for 2011 was vetoed last night. It is the first time that this happens since 1985 and is due to the European Parliament’s miscalculations in the negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty. Under the Lisbon Treaty...
EU budget vetoed?
The final deadline of midnight on 15 November for agreeing the EU's annual budget for 2011 may have passed. No press release has appeared on the website of the European Parliament or the European Council to indicate otherwise. A Council press confere...
Should the UK contribute to an Irish bailout?
The increasingly likely prospect of an Irish bailout is looming and that is also likely to have an impact on the UK.While the UK was not involved in the Greek bailout, British taxpayers are liable for one of the two bailout funds agreed in its afterm...
EP team "disappointed" as negotiations on EU budget are suspended
Negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council on next year's budget were suspended on November 11 after a minority of member states proved unwilling to agree to discussing the way future EU budgets should be financed. In a reaction,...
What do a dog fitness centre, a €5.25m fleet of limousines, a cartoon horse and 'virtual language swimming' have in common?
Yep, you've guessed it, it's that time of year again. Today we've published yet another list of wasteful EU projects, the third such list in as many years (you can find the previous ones here and here).One of our favourites is "Eurogaloppo" the carto...
More fall out from the Council
Now the comment flows like a torrent about today's capitulation in Brussels. The Telegraph's formal editorial has this to say,Mr Cameron must be firmer. If money is power, then any increase in subsidy represents a transfer of authority to Brussels, o...
Game, set and match to Angela
Germany's chancellor wins the day at a European summit...
While we are increasing the Budget of the EU, we find the the accounts are still dodgy
As everybodies eyes are turned to the European Council and Mr Cameron's self proclaimed victory, I wondered if anything had been slipped out that I should notice, and lo and behold what have we here?It is the European Court of Auditors latest report,...
The EU’s merry budget dance
The British press has been making a big thing of negotiations on the 2011 EU budget for the past couple of days. David Cameron was apparently telephoning EU leaders yesterday, and on the eve of today’s summit claimed victory that the budget wou...
Everybody wins in Brussels?
The European leaders are exiting the Just Lips building now, and they are all smiles. To hear them tell it, everybody got what they wanted out of yesteray's horse-trading in the Autumn European Council. Merkel and Sarkozy got their eurozone treaty ch...
EU summit: The morning after
Day one of the EU heads of government summit may have broken up after 1 a.m., but European officials were already up early Friday to conduct their regular post-mortem of the drawn out fight from the night before. At a breakfast with reporters, Jose M...
