Non-Community European spending

After negotiations lasting over two years, the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020 has now finally been agreed upon in 2013. But the European budget is not the only way in which public spending can be Europeanised. 'Non-Community European spending', in particular, reveals another picture which is the result of cooperation among several European Union (EU) member states that have expressed the wish to fund common projects together.

This Policy Paper sets out to draw particular attention to this form of public funding, testifying as it does to certain member states’ wish to move forward together in a common direction by optimising the use of public resources and overcoming the political hurdles that can exist within the EU as a whole.

Non-Community European spending may be defined as spending funded by several member states independently of their membership of the EU or of their contribution to the Community budget. This spending is often managed by intergovernmental organisations set up by one or more EU member states. This kind of public spending allows member states to pursue European integration without awaiting a 28-strong consensus, and on the basis of the priorities that they set themselves in order to take advantage of economies of scale and of the benefits accruing from pooling funding.

Estimated to have been worth over €7.7bn in 2011, this spending is primarily concentrated in the areas of research and development, and competitiveness and innovation, but also in the sphere of external relations.

Thus the European commitment to technological research and development accounts for over 10% of overall public spending devoted to this field, rather than the mere 6% that one comes up with when taking Community spending alone into account. Similarly, European commitment in the sphere of external relations, while admittedly very limited, is no longer totally absent.