Review article

A Budget without a Treasury – a European Challenge

Gábor IVÁN ; Ambassador of Hungary to Croatia

Abstract

The financial perspective of 2000-2006 has fundamentally changed the relationship between the EU’s budget and its policies. Whereas prior to this perspective, the EU maintained a policy-driven budget; in its aftermath, Community policies became budget-driven. Since then, the latter has been the prevailing tendency. The major factor behind the budget-driven policies is the strong juste retour approach, where Member States, as their primary goal in budgetary debates, attempt to optimise their net position against the Union’s budget. The priority of the net position is rooted in the EU’s failing own resources system. Instead of genuine own resources, three-quarters of the budget is financed by GNI-based resources. The autonomy of the common budget and the reintroduction of policy-driven budget planning could only be ensured by (1) a genuine own resources system based on the resources generated by Community policies, or (2) a specific Community tax, or a combination of the two. This raises significant questions concerning further Member State sovereignty sharing and their overall readiness for fiscal and political integration.

Keywords

budget-driven policies; policy-driven budget; own resources; net position; autonomy of the budget

Hrčak ID:

85066

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/85066

Publication date:

1.8.2012.

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