Budget Reform and the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

The changes made to the budgetary powers of the EU in the Lisbon Treaty were the most significant since the budget treaties of 1970 and 1975. Under the rules of the Lisbon Treaty, member states and the EP will try to agree a new MFF, the long-term budget, for the years 2014 to 2020. Under new rules, they will also try to agree the EU’s annual budgets and may try to reform the EU’s system of revenue or own resources. While annual budgets used to allow the EP and Council to exercise leverage over each other in spending, own resources determine the amounts available to spend. Both of these affect negotiations on the MFF

I am grateful to Bjørn Høyland for permission to reproduce Figures 3.1 and 3.2 from our co-authored article, Benedetto and Høyland (2007).