For a few euros more: Benevolent objectives have only a supporting role in determining EU budget

The EU budget is supposed to reflect benevolent principles, but some suspect that baser motives may guide member states bargaining over the allocation. This column summarises evidence demonstrating that power politics play a large role in building the EU budget, while benevolence is rather lacking.

VoxEU.org is a policy portal set up by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in conjunction with a consortium of national sites, including the Italian site LaVoce, the French site Telos and the Spanish site Sociedad Abierta. Vox aims to promote research-based policy analysis and commentary by leading scholars. The intended audience is economists in governments, international organisations, academia and the private sector as well as journalists specializing in economics, finance and business.

• Primary Source