On April 4th, 2006, the European Union agreed on a new Financial Framework for the 2007-13 annual budgets. The compromise was reached under very difficult political and economic circumstances, and it is more than doubtful whether the existing funding and budget system will be able to keep the...

Cohesion Policy has become one of the European Union's central policy concerns since the mid-1980s. But this Community policy is subject to unyielding pressure to adapt and reform. Hardly have the principles, objectives, funds, priorities and administrative procedures been agreed for one funding...

Negotiations on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) are always lengthy, complex and conflictual. This applies to the MFF 2021-2027, which is expected to have a financial volume of around €1.3 trillion. As usual, the negotiations revolve around political priorities, the expenditures...

Although the roots of the European Union lie in economic integration, the EU's economic policy competences and possibilities are narrowly limited in European primary law. Nevertheless, the influence of the EU, and in particular the European Commission, on economic policies of the member states...

The successful conclusion to the Intergovernmental Conference on the European Constitutional Treaty means that negotiations on the next financial framework for the enlarged European Union - the Financial Perspective or Agenda 2007 - constitute the next major area of discussion within the EU....

In Lisbon back in March 2000, the EU heads of state and government undertook to pursue the strategic objective of turning the Union into 'the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world' by 2010. The imminent mid-term review of the Lisbon Process constitutes an opportunity...