Europe: The seven-year hitch

Major analysis feature. The EU budget round for the period 2014-2020 is set to be more fraught than ever, as older Member States battle a debt crisis and the new ones such as poland fight to retain funds, write Joshua Chaffin and Jan Cienski.

The issue will come into focus over the next in 2011-12, as the 27 member states and the EU Institutions fight to put their stamp on the roughly €1,000bn the bloc will spend during the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020. The results of that exercise could shape the world’s largest economy for years to come as it seeks to emerge from an unrelenting debt crisis that has sapped its momentum and left even stalwart supporters struggling to define its future.

ESO: Background information: Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 http://www.europeansources.info/record/multiannual-financial-framework-2014-2020/

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