European Parliamentary Research Service Blog
How the EU budget is spent
How the EU budget is spent: Macro-financial assistance
Written by Ana Claudia Alfieri, One important European Union (EU) objective is to achieve macroeconomic and political stability in its neighbourhood by ‘developing a zone of shared stability, security, and prosperity’ through a set of policies that help to bring candidate, potential candidate, and neighbourhood countries closer to the EU. One of these policies is … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II)
Written by Martin Svasek, The Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) supports countries that are candidates or potential candidates for EU membership. The support goes towards measures aiming at adopting and implementing the political, institutional, legal, administrative, social and economic reforms required to comply with the Union’s values and to align progressively with the Union’s rules, … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Nuclear decommissioning assistance
Written by Gianluca Sgueo and Matthew Parry, In the early 1990s, in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the EU began providing financial and technical assistance to partner countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia via the TACIS and PHARE programmes. In 1999, the EU launched three nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes (NDAP) specifically to … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace
Written by Alina Dobreva with Philipp Wegner, The EU contributes to the prevention of emerging crises and to an effective response to existing ones through the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP), launched in 2014. The instrument provides funds for conflict prevention, ensuring capacity and preparedness to address pre- and post-crisis situations and peacebuilding. … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: European Social Fund
Written by Martin Svášek, The European Social Fund (ESF) was established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and is the oldest EU structural fund still in place. Originally designed to improve employment opportunities for workers in the internal market, the fund aims at raising living standards. For the current 2014-2020 programming period, Regulation (EU) … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Justice Programme (2014-2020)
Written by Rafał Mańko, EU law is applied on a daily basis by national judges in the Member States, who rely on assistance from the EU Court of Justice only in the most complicated cases. Judges otherwise interpret and apply EU law on their own. In the European area of freedom, security and justice, national … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: EU Aid Volunteers initiative
Written by Alina Dobreva with Philipp Wegner, Volunteering brings practical relief to communities hit by natural or man-made disasters. It also raises volunteers’ awareness and strengthens their sense of solidarity with victims, and helps them to acquire professional skills and experience. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative (EUAV) promotes volunteering among young Europeans, breaking down the … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Erasmus+
Written by Sidonia Mazur, Denise Chircop; Graphics by Christian Dietrich. Erasmus+ is the European Union’s single programme encompassing action in the fields of education, training, youth and sport for the years 2014-2020 with a financial envelope just below €15 000 million. Erasmus+ comes under the budgetary heading ‘Smart and Inclusive Growth’. The programme finances learning mobility for … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: European Neighbourhood Instrument
Written by Matthew Parry, The European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) was established in 2014 by Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 and endowed with a budget of just over €15.4 billion for the 2014-2020 period. The ENI funds EU efforts to cooperate with and promote development in 16 countries and territories on its eastern and southern frontiers, as … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: The European Regional Development Fund
Written by Magdalena Sapała, The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of five European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds aimed at achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion in the European Union. The ERDF’s primary task is to redress the main regional imbalances in the Union through investment in the structural adjustment of regions where … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Cohesion Fund
The Cohesion Fund allocation for 2014-2020 is €63 396.06 million, this is 14% of total ESI Funds allocation and almost 7% of the total EU Multiannual Financial Framework. The biggest recipient of the fund in absolute terms is Poland, followed by Romania. Estonia and Slovakia receive the highest support per inhabitant. Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Common Agricultural Policy
Written by Gianluca Sgueo, Francesco Tropea and Marie-Laure Augere-Granier, With 52% of the European Union (EU) territory classified as predominantly rural, more than 170 million hectares of agricultural land, and 113 million people (nearly one quarter of the EU population) living in rural areas, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents one of the largest shares of expenditure from … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME)
Written by Martin Svasek, COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Allocated a financial envelope of EUR 2.3 billion for the 2014-2020 period, it is designed to improve SMEs’ access to finance and markets. It should also support entrepreneurship and provide more favourable conditions for business creation and … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Health Programme
Written by Matthew Parry and Nicole Scholz, The European Union is legally obliged (Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)) to ‘ensure a high level of human health protection’ when shaping and implementing its policies and activities. However, since public health policy remains a Member State competence, with individual … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Common Foreign and Security Policy
Written by Alina Dobreva and Carmen-Cristina Cîrlig, The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is designed to preserve peace, prevent conflicts, strengthen international security and ensure the visibility and effectiveness of EU foreign policy. Spending under the CFSP (€327.3 million in commitments for 2016) covers only some EU foreign policy measures, namely civilian missions, … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Rights, Equality and Citizenship
Written by Gianluca Sgueo, With a financial envelope of nearly €440 million for the period 2014-2020, four main financing actions and nine specific objectives, the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (RECP) is a European Union (EU) funding programme aiming to protect equality and the rights of persons, as enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Humanitarian Aid
Written by Alina Dobreva EU Humanitarian Aid (HA) provides a needs-based emergency response to natural disasters and man-made crises outside the EU, in order to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering, and protect the human dignity of affected populations. It provides relief regardless of recipients’ nationality, religion, gender or ethnic origin, and based on … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Connecting Europe Facility
Written by Matthew Parry, Marketa Pape and Alex Wilson The European Commission estimates that some €970 billion should be invested in trans-European (TEN) transport, telecommunications and energy network infrastructure by 2020 if Europe is to reach its full potential in terms of growth and cohesion. The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is designed to contribute to this objective, … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights
Written by Alina Dobreva The aim of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) is to provide support for the promotion of democracy and human rights in non-EU countries. The EIDHR was established in 2006, and reflects the founding values of the European Union (EU): democracy and respect for human rights, and the … Continue reading
How the EU budget is spent: Creative Europe: encouraging creative growth and employment
Written by Matthew Parry and Magdalena Pasikowska-Schnass Cultural and audiovisual operators in Europe face not only the challenges of the shift towards digitalisation, market fragmentation, global competition and a difficult financial climate. They are also confronted with a linguistically fragmented European cultural and audiovisual market. The Creative Europe programme creates favourable conditions for multilateral and … Continue reading
