The six priorities

Stimulating economic growth, tackling the pressing and generalized problem of unemployment, helping the less developed regions, promoting research and the new technologies, safeguarding the environment, and supporting agriculture: these are the six main priorities and items of expenditure of the European Union, whose coffers disbursed over 112 billion euro in 2009. Far less money, on the other hand, was spent on foreign policy, culture or the promotion of citizenship, though the budgetary items are gradually changing. The accounts of the “common home”. The financial report for 2009, which the Commission presented on 28 September, shows that “97% of the allocations was effectively spent”, in other words virtually all that was budgeted, a percentage similar to that in 2008 (98%). Each year the Commission draws up a budgetary scheme that is then approved, after long negotiations, by Council and Parliament. The Executive is charged with “implementing” the budget itself (under the supervision of the European Audit Office); the financial report serves to verify whether the allocations decided on have effectively been disbursed and served the purpose for which they were designed. It should be recalled that 70% of the EU budget is financed by transfers from the member states in proportion to their respective gross national product. The other part of the budget comes from VAT (approximately 11%), customs duties (12%) and surpluses from the previous year.Competitiveness and cohesion. The largest chapter, which now accounts for 44 billion euro, is aimed at growth and competitiveness. “In 2009 – says the Commission in its report – the EU spent 6.3 billion euro in the context of the seventh framework programme of technological research and development”. The EU funds were used to finance a thousand or so research projects in various fields, such as energy or technologies applied to communications. “In the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation programme, over 34,000 small and medium businesses benefited from EU funds”. According to the Commission, these projects help to create jobs in various countries. Moreover, “the Erasmus programme, to which some 4,000 universities have signed up, funded over 300,000 scholarships for student mobility”. A large slice of the budget is allocated to territorial cohesion policy, aimed, for example, at creating infrastructures, curbing marine pollution, and helping to promote the growth of services and the creation of jobs in peripheral areas of the EU27. “Over 30% of the 2009 budget was allocated to the revival of the economy and growth”, explains Janusz Lewandowski, Commissioner for budget. “Thanks to the lever effect, each euro invested in our regions may generate from two to three times more. It is just at this level that the EU budget makes the difference on the ground”. In other words, some investments, if made at the EU level rather than at that of the individual States, seem to show a higher yield.Agriculture and environment. The second largest item in the EU budget refers to agriculture, environmental protection and rural development (it’s only in more recent years that the primary sector has been overtaken by competitiveness and cohesion). “The EU budget – confirms Lewandowski – supports farmers, allocating to them over 40 billion euro in direct aid and interventions on the markets, which correspond to almost half of the sector’s total receipts”. In quite another field, the percentage of EU funds allocated to citizenship and the protection of citizens is growing, albeit very slowly. In 2009, says the Commission by way of example, “110,000 youth participated in exchanges and projects”. The Union further “intervened in support of five member states that had a need for fire-fighting equipment and furnished Bulgaria with anti-viral drugs. From the solidarity fund an allocation of 623 million euro was made to mitigate the effects of natural disasters, especially after the earthquake that struck southern Italy” (the Abruzzo region). Humanitarian aid, administrative costs. It has to be recognized, on the other hand, that the European Union continues to be very active also in the field of aid to the developing countries. Last year the EU allocated some 12 billion euro to the less developed regions of the world; some 140 nations were the beneficiaries of these funds. “Over 150 million people in 70 countries benefited from EU humanitarian and food aid”. In the framework of foreign policy and common security, the EU further “ran missions in various hot spots of the world, for example in Kosovo, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa”. Specific credits were also granted to “prepare the candidate countries and potentially candidate countries to satisfy [EU] membership conditions” (Croatia, Turkey, Macedonia and other Balkan States). Lastly there’s the item of administrative costs (those to keep the “EU machine” running), which rose in total to 7.4 billion euro, equivalent to 6.5% of total expenditure.