In this edition of the European Council Experts’ Debrief, our experts focus on the sensitive issue of the future financing of European Union (EU) policies. We asked eight experts to respond to the following question, formulated by TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos and Executive Director Mariam Khotenashvili: “The EU is confronted with major challenges – geopolitical, policy-based, societal. The financing needs over the next years will be gigantic; estimates of the investment gap vary between experts, but they go into the hundreds of billions annually. The EU needs a holistic look at all aspects of financing, the EU budget and own resources, NextGenerationEU-type (NGEU) financing, national financing and the issue of State aids, and ways to mobilise private investment. How do you assess the situation, and what should the EU do about it?“
The financing challenges for the EU are staggering. New developments like the Green Deal, the Digital Transition, a new Security and Defence policy, the assistance to Ukraine and the enlargement to the East and the Western Balkans require investments in the hundreds of billions. At the same time, traditional policies like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Cohesion and development will continue to consume a major part of the EU budget. The traditionally quite diverse views in the Member States about the EU budget will make agreement difficult; the reduced margins of budgetary manoeuvring for EU Member States with a high public debt will not help either. These themes and more are tackled in this new edition of the European Council Experts’ Debrief.
In addition to the foreword by TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos, expert contributors to this edition include:
- Johanna Breuer, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany
- Michele Chang, College of Europe, Belgium
- Erik Jones, European University Institute, Italy
- Eulalia Rubio Barceló, Jacques Delors Institute, France & Center for European Policy Studies, Belgium
- Stéphane Saurel, UCLouvain – Saint-Louis Bruxelles, Belgium
- Adriaan Schout, Clingendael Institute, the Netherlands
- Aneta Spendzharova, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
- Fabian Zuleeg, European Policy Centre, Belgium
Cover picture: © Marian Vejcik
