Alex Barker, (2018), “EU budget revamp set to shift funds to southern states”, Financial Times, 22 April
Brussels plans to shift tens of billions of euros in EU funding away from central and eastern Europe, diverting money from countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to those hit hard by the financial crisis such as Spain and Greece. The reforms will be one of the most contentious parts of the European Commission’s draft 2021-2027 EU budget, which will be unveiled next month, and mark a dramatic redesign of the €350bn “cohesion policy” that aims to support less developed parts of the union. Brussels wants to end the practice of distributing cohesion money almost exclusively on the basis of gross domestic product per head, replacing it with much broader criteria covering everything from youth unemployment, education and the environment to migration and innovation. The overhaul will be particularly worrying for Warsaw and Budapest, two big beneficiaries of cohesion funds who have clashed with Brussels over the rule of law and democratic standards. Poland has warned that tough conditions for EU funding linked to judicial independence would cause “enormous problems” and encroach on sovereign rights.
Relevant Posts
- Palley, Thomas, (2016), «Financing Vs. Spending Unions: How To Remedy The Euro Zone’s Original Sin», Social Europe, 14 July
- Konstantinos Efstathiou, (2017), «Latest data shows developing trends in the European Central Bank’s refinancing operations», Bruegel, 12 December