The 1992 EC budgetary procedure and its outcome illustrated two things. Firstly, after the relative calm of the past few years, the budget is moving back up the political agenda in the Community. Secondly, it is becoming clearer which issues will figure most prominently in the debate on the...

The European Structural and Investment Funds make up more than 40% of the EU budget and are thereby the EU's most important financial support to growth, employment, investment and structural change. The funds are programmed for (overlapping) seven-year periods, and all programmes for the new...