ABOUT EU's BUDGET - AND WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT

My special comments today will deal with the EU budget. Why?  Because the European Council with all 27 heads of state and government will meet to try to agree on the multi-annual EU budget for the years 2021-27.  It has to be done in unanimity, so it will not be easy. We will see a lot of shouting and screaming, some theater performances and some real disagreements. Personally, I do not believe that they will succeed to finalise it at this meeting.  But perhaps...  The new president, the Belgian Charles Michel, will use all his skills and experience to get an agreement. And with his background as Belgian prime minister for many years he has encountered - and solved - difficult problems before.

This makes me think of an old, experienced and also cynical official who once said:  If you as official want to avoid that the politicians discuss real political issues, you have to ask them to talk about budgets, appointments of people and the geographical distribution of new institutions and agencies.  Then all the time will be consumed by that !
I do not think that this will happen in the coming meeting. But you never know. 

In my view there are two very important questions related to the debate about the budget of the EU:
1) What is much more important in the EU than the budget?
2) What does EU use its money for? What are the most important budget posts? And how will it help the member states at the end of the day?

I will address the first question today.  And when the dust has settled after the coming meeting I will come back to the other question.

So, what in EU is much more important than the budget - and actually never reflected in the budget?

1. EU as a peace project.  Not mentioned in the budget
2. EU's huge single market of more than 500 million people - on which millions of workers directly depend. No mention in the budget.
3. EU's 41 trade agreements with 72 non-EU countries around the world. Agreements to the benefit of all member states. Not mentioned in the budget.
4. EU's competition rules:  the prohibition against monopolies and abuse of dominating position in the single market; control of state aid; etc.  Not mentioned in the budget - though most of the huge fines given to companies breaking the rules go directly into the EU money boxes.
5. The EU rules on Europe-wide consumer protection are not part of the budget either.
6. The EU policies protecting the environment are not in the budget either. About 500 adopted regulations and directives have made EU the area in the world with the highest standards of protection.
7. The Schengen cooperation with free movement over borders is also not a budget issue.
8. The prohibition on discrimination of people and companies on the basis of nationality, religion, sex, age, etc. is not reflected in the budget.

Many more cases can be mentioned. The main point is that a lot of the most important EU activities has not budget implications.  The budget is in a way a minor player in the EU.  That is why it brings things out of context when the often loud and hectic discussions on the budget concentrate only on the budget.  A real discussion should concentrate on what we want to do together. Define the political and concrete priorities. And then afterwards calculate what it will cost and how it can be paid.  To do it the other way around contributes to confusion on what is important - and what is less important.

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