Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, November 05, 2012

The EU's three power centers

If your students study the EU, the current budget debate is a good case study to illustrate the competing centers of political power.

 European Parliament clashes with ministers on EU budget
The European Parliament has rejected the 27 EU governments' position on next year's EU budget, triggering hard bargaining to reach a deal.

In a vote in Strasbourg the MEPs backed the European Commission's call for a 6.8% budget rise for 2013.

An MEPs' report deplored a decision by the Council - the 27 governments - to cut that figure to 2.79%…

The Commission… argues that the cuts proposed by the Council would harm Europe's growth efforts, hitting research and small firms.

If there is no deal on the long-term budget, the EU's 2013 budget will roll over into 2014 with an automatic 2% rise based on inflation…

The biggest items of spending, accounting for about 80% in total, are agriculture and cohesion funds - aid for Europe's poorer regions. France is especially keen to maintain agriculture spending, while cohesion is a big issue for the ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe…

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