in: Ewald Nowotny, Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald, Helene Schuberth, How to Finance Cohesion in Europe?
Book chapters, contributions to collected volumes, Edward Elgar Publishing, Vienna, September 2019, pp.92-105
In May 2018, the European Commission published a first proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the
European Union (EU) for the period from 2021 to 2027. Most member countries are assessing this proposal – as has been the
case for the proposals for the EU budget negotiated in the past – based on their own individual net positions: that is, the
balance of payments made into the EU budget and transfers received out of it. Indirect benefits from membership in the Single
Market and from EU expenditures, which considerably exceed member countries' contributions to the EU budget, are almost completely
neglected. This juste retour thinking predominant among Member States bears the danger that the negotiations on the upcoming
MFF 2021-2027 will be as tedious and lengthy as those on preceding EU budgets, and that they will end, once more, with an
agreement on an EU budget that is unsatisfactory with regard to its volume and structure. The current deadlock situation can
only be overcome by strengthening the added value of the EU budget when it comes to expenditures as well as revenues. This
requires a fundamental reform of both sides of the EU budget.
in: Wilfried Altzinger, Alois Guger, Peter Mooslechner, Ewald Nowotny (Eds.), Economics as a Multi-Paradigmatic Science. In Honour of Kurt W. Rothschild (1914-2010)