The EU’s struggle for more financial resources has been a constant feature of European
integration, as has the struggle for budgetary reform. A key problem is the transfer nature of the budget, which pits contributors against recipients, with all Member States clinging to the predictability of the budget and hindering substantive reform processes. In the absence of a flexible budget for public goods at the EU level, we therefore struggle to act in budgetary solidarity across issues and over time and tend to pit national interests against each other.
There are ways around the rigid structure of the EU budget: NGEU-type financing is one
possibility, as the temporary nature of a budgetary instrument makes it easier to agree and predict the financial consequences for each Member State. However, a holistic approach to EU financing should first be based on reforming the two big “C’s” in the budget: the Cohesion funds and the CAP, which are in urgent need of reform because they are not working as we want them to. Reforming these funds must become a priority and will allow us to redirect financial resources. The focus of this policy brief is that:
- CAP and Cohesion funds require substantial reform,
- Communicating these reform processes to stakeholders, interest groups and citizens is key