The member states have self-interested objectives and they use their voting power in the Council of Ministers (CM) to maximize their shares from the EU budget, whereas European Parliament (EP) uses its power to support benevolent objectives and equality between member states. Given the current...

The study analyses the financial framework of the European Union in 2014-2020 and the prospects of Finland in this framework. The study is structured according to budget headlines the most central of which are the natural resources (agriculture and rural development), cohesion (regional and...

CAP reform is the major bone of contention in the negotiations of the next long-term EU budget beyond 2013. This paper reviews the political landscape so as to make it more legible to the public. First, it summarizes the arguments concerning key reform issues: What should be the size of the CAP...

About 75% of the EU budget are transfer expenditures that go to the agricultural sector and to regional policies. This has long been criticised but the structure of the EU budget has barely changed over the last decades. The EU finances are mainly based on a unanimous agreement between the heads...

The current system for the financing of the EU needs to be reformed. This paper puts forth a reform proposal with two important elements: first, the addition of an EU VAT share on receipts; and second, a shift in power from the European Council to the European Parliament with regard to the...