The CEPS Task Force on the EU budget began its deliberations shortly after the December 2005 Council Decision, embracing all aspects of the budget and culminating, after more than a year of preparation, in this report. This report offers a structure for evaluating the EU's expenditures and future reform options based on a set of guiding principles drawn from the EU Treaties and precepts of good governance. It goes on to identify the misallocation of resources as a central cause of the net balance disputes that plague the system and undermine its fairness. To ensure that the EU is able to act in areas of real value, the report concludes that improvements in the rationale for the expenditures and an increase in the quality of interventions must occur in tandem with an elimination of distortions in the resources mechanism.

In recent decades the EU has widened and deepened to such an extent that it now deals in almost all areas of policy-making. Its budget, however, has barely changed over this period. It thus needs to be radically reformed if it is to reflect the priorities of an expanding and deepening Union. Over 40% of spending still supports agriculture, a declining sector; spending for research and innovation, recognised as the main driving force of productivity growth, is too low, and there is no room in the budget for the new public goods of domestic and external security that the public demands. However, the budget is determined through an inter-governmental negotiation in which no entity defends the over-arching European interest since all countries (rationally) care only about their 'net balance'. Radical changes in budgetary decision-making procedures are no longer possible since the Reform Treaty, now in the ratification process, essentially cemented a procedure that combines the primacy of national interests with a very strong status quo bias. The latter arises because in the absence of a unanimous agreement on new priorities the old budget automatically continues to apply. If this status quo bias cannot be broken major reforms become virtually impossible. The forthcoming mid-term review of the budget should be used to achieve political agreement on breaking the status quo bias by introducing 'sunset' clauses, which stipulate that major spending programmes will be discontinued after a certain period of time unless their usefulness can be ascertained and a new agreement reached allowing their continuation. Movement in the right direction can thus start immediately, even within the present legal framework, especially if Parliament uses its influence to push for a better allocation of expenditure.

This study focuses on the financial resources needed to fight global climate change and the implications for the EU budget. The authors apply four different methodologies to estimate global financing requirements and attempt to determine the resources that will be needed at the EU level to meet the EU's climate change objectives. The study analyses current climate change spending of the EU budget, identifies shortcomings and indicates possibilities for correcting them. It also assesses the potential of the EU emissions trading scheme to raise additional resources to finance coordinated actions at the EU level aimed at fighting climate change. Finally, it provides three case studies of national public expenditure related to climate change in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This book addresses the prospects and challenges concerning both soft and hard infrastructure development in Asia and provides a framework for achieving Asian connectivity through regional infrastructure cooperation towards a seamless Asia. Key topics included are: ' demand estimates of national and regional infrastructure in transport, electricity, information and communication technology, and water and sanitation; ' empirical results on the costs and benefits of regional infrastructure for economies and households; ' the impact of infrastructure development on the environment and climate; ' sources and instruments of infrastructure financing; ' best practices and lessons learned from the experiences of the Asian region and other regions; and ' experiences of public_private partnership projects. This insightful book will serve as a definitive knowledge product for policymakers, academics, private sector experts and infrastructure practitioners interested in the regional and national infrastructure demand, investment and benefits in the region. Concerned officials from private and public sectors, and other experts involved in environmental and natural resources studies will also find this compendium invaluable.

Proceedings of conference "The Road Europe Travelled Along--The Evolution of the EEC/EU Institutions and Policies," which was held at the University of Siena on the 23rd and 24th of May, 2008.

A well-known academic economist and former finance minister, at present member of the European Parliament, Dăianu gives a lucid and well balanced overview of the current financial turbulences that have hit the developed economies. Strongly criticizing the excesses of neoliberal capitalism, calls for implementing necessary regulatory reforms in the financial sector and for restoration of a proper balance between the functions of the state and the market. A financial meltdown, with its very dire effects on the real economy, can be prevented by adopting proper policies and regulations. Dăianu goes back to some of the roots of the current crisis and the flaws or weaknesses of the global financial system. In doing so, he calls for the definition of new rules, of a new framework, for a global market requires the active participation of all major players, including the emerging economies. A timely volume with a very strong and important warning

Brings together some of the agricultural economists in Europe to discuss pressing issues regarding the reform of the CAP, such as EU agricultural, trade and development policies, and the role of the WTO.

Published in association with the Anglo-German FoundationBritish and German support for eastward enlargement of the EU has been crucial in driving the process forward and giving it momentum; unless this commitment continues, and strengthens, the process could falter. Yet, not only have Britain and Germany had very different views on EU integration for many years, they also have differnt geopolitical interests and very different levels of economic involvement in central and eastern Europe. In this book, leading British and German experts present a new analysis of British and German interests in enlargement and assesses contemporary policy approaches. Based on economic analysis, policy documentation and interviews with key policy-makers, they consider the scope for Britain and Germany to work together on enlargement, as well as highlighting the areas that could drive them apart.

This book engages in the controversies of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms, demonstrating how these are reiterated by mainstream theoretical approaches in the field. The reforms that the European Union’s CAP underwent during the last three decades were intended to make it less trade-distorting, more taxpayer-friendly and more able to meet the new challenges of environmental concerns and rural development/territorial cohesion. The outcome of the reforms has, however, contradicted these objectives, with the controversies being reiterated by the mainstream theoretical approaches in the field. European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy Reforms argues that these controversies are due to reductionist, rationalist and idealist assumptions with regard to the object of inquiry applied by mainstream approaches. It proposes an alternative critical approach that takes into account the role of real material factors. Critical realism is not just an alternative explanation of CAP reforms but an alternative theory of how explanations can be made, which enables readers to reflect upon and endorse the results of existing lines of research in proceeding towards deeper level theory.