EU transfers and the next financial framework

The main aim of the paper is to display and analyse both the revenue and the expenditure side of the future budget which came to light in the Commission proposal concerning the EU new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of 2014-2020. Efforts were also made to clarify the interests lying behind claims and different behaviour of the member states vis-à-vis the common European budget.

All available EU documents on MFF were exploited, especially those published concerning the Commission proposal at the end of June 2011. As a very interesting observation, it was revealed that the Commission proposal rather favours the old and/or developed member states than the new and/or underdeveloped ones. Considering the amount of efforts needed to surmount the crisis and to stabilise public finances, considering in addition the weakening propensity of net contributors to the budget (especially that of Germany) to place EU-cooperation before their own national interests, it is to be feared that the next MFF will not be the one to accelerate the catching-up process of the less developed regions of Europe.