Addressing the net balances problem as a prerequisite for EU budget reform: A proposal

Angel de La Fuente (), Rafael Domenech and Vasja Rant

UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC)

Abstract: Conflict among member states regarding the distribution of net financial burdens has been allowed to contaminate the entire design of the EU budget with very negative consequences in terms of equity, efficiency and transparency. To get around this problem and pave the way for a substantive budget reform, we propose to decouple distributional negotiations from the rest of the budget process by linking member state net balances in a rigid manner to relative prosperity. This would be achieved through the introduction of a system of compensating horizontal transfers that would take to its logical conclusion the Commission's proposal for a generalized compensation mechanism. We discuss the impact of the proposed scheme on member states? incentives and illustrate its financial implications using revenue and expenditure projections for 2013 that are based on the current Financial Perspectives and Own Resources Decision.

Keywords: EU; budget (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20
Date: 2008-02-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-eec
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://pareto.uab.es/wp/2008/73808.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Addressing the net balances problem as a prerequisite for EU budget reform: A proposal (2015)
Journal Article: Addressing the Net Balances Problem as a Prerequisite for EU Budget Reform: A Proposal (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aub:autbar:738.08

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Xavier Vila ().