Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

terms only very slowly and as a percentage of total commitment
appropriations is expected to fall from 36% in 2007 to 32% in 2013.
However a large part of the expenditure on rural development, the second
arm of the Common Agricultural Policy, goes to farming. This expenditure
has increased rapidly over the last few years as it has been realised that the
development of rural areas is a key to a healthy farm economy.
Cohesion policies, designed to support the less prosperous regions and
member states, account for around 36% of total budget commitments
throughout the whole period 2007 to 2013. This allocation still contains a
large proportion of funding for regions in the EU-15, some of which is
transitional funding which will run out before the end of the current
financial perspective. This suggests that cohesion policy funding could fall
in the next financial perspective, both in nominal terms and as a percentage
of total funding, although the accession of Turkey would undoubtedly lead
to a move in the opposite direction. Spending on cohesion, like that on the
CAP, has come under attack from some of the net contributors to the
budget, because a large share of the funding is still going to regions in
rather rich member states.
Around 6% of the annual budget is spent on administration, including
staffing and pension costs.
The most important policy areas for the future of the European Union
share the remaining 15% of the budget. This includes those policies
considered essential for the future competitiveness of the Union, such as
research and development, education and training and energy and
transport networks, the burgeoning area of freedom and security and
justice, EU foreign and neighbourhood policy and of course climate
change. Union activity in all of these areas is increasing at a considerable
rate, but this is not reflected in the budget. These policies are also those
for which majority support can be found amongst the citizens of the
member states.
The structure of the budget and of the financial framework depend partly
on the rules under which they are drawn up, some of which are extremely
complex. Apart from the normal distinction between payment and
commitment appropriations, until the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the budget
still differentiates between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure.
This insulates CAP spending from effective parliamentary criticism. The
budgetary treatment also is conditional on the competence of the Union to
act in certain fields. The Common Foreign and Security Policy is an
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After the crisis: A new socio-economic settlement for the EU