Rethinking the EU Budget: Three Unavoidable Reforms (Centre for European Policy Studies)

Many experts have highlighted the inadequacy of the present EU budget to fulfill its objectives. The 'full, wide ranging review' of the EU budget requested by the European Council in December 2005, and due to be finalized in 2008-09, is at once an opportunity and a difficult challenge, unpredictable in its outcome. This book deals with the main weaknesses of the EU's finances and tries to explain their originating factors. It also identifies three reforms which seem to be a precondition for progress. These reforms are the establishment of one single revenue system for all member states; the clear identification of specific and verifiable objectives for the programs financed; and, finally, the achievement of full accountability through a single responsibility for implementation of the budget.