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Also, they can not grow by 400%. There are rules in place that limit the budget and the maximum change per budget chapter that can be executed at once. These ru

Also, they can not grow by 400%. There are rules in place that limit the budget and the maximum change per budget chapter that can be executed at once. These rules are made and by member countries. BTW, EU budget was available in XML format for a while. Easy to parse. The first years they did not publish it, a FOI request would get you an electronic copy rather quickly. IIRC, there was little interest in the machine-readable budget because the published version does not go too far into the details of budget lines and one has to have specialized knowledge to read it. Still, one could make some interesting conclusions, e.g. that the Ombudsman had much higher HR budget per head that the rest of the pack, the Commission included. This created internal tensions, but no substantial change in the follow-up. It's a pity there is so little interest in EU Budget that they can just stop publishing machine-readable copy and get away with it.

fidgewidge 4y ago
The EU budget in theory is funded by money allocated by member states and can't go beyond that level. This is fixed law by treaty, Article 310: "The revenue and expenditure shown in the budget shall be in balance." But nothing about EU treaties means anything in practice. This article holds back the EU's power and they can't be having that, so what actually happens is ... https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7787 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... "First half of 2023: Commission to issue up to €80 billion to finance economic recovery and support for Ukraine" The money isn't even being spent on EU member states! Raising money via debt this way is illegal but the EU is not a system of laws, it's a system that does whatever it can get away with politically. That's why it's dangerous: it is a dictatorship that's rapidly growing in power, and it's on track to completely destroy European democracy. An analysis of the treaty problem is here: https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/new-generation-eu-a-constitutional-change-without-constitutional-change/ https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/new-generation-eu-a-constit... It's written by a self proclaimed EU fan who says: "When the COVID-19 crisis hit the Union, the Treaties did not change, but the political circumstances surrounding them did. Building on a Franco-German plan, the Commission came forward with a proposal for Next Generation EU (NGEU), to be financed through borrowing € 750 billion on the financial markets and primarily used as grants to Member States. In other words, the EU issues debt on a massive scale to finance itself. It does exactly what we thought it was prevented by the Treaties from doing. I do not question the need of solidarity, but rather the legal techniques applied to deliver this solidarity. Soon after the adoption of the Commission proposal, the Council website was updated and the reference to the prohibition of debt financing was removed. Apparently, constitutional change was about to take place, however, without a formal constitutional change." Here, "legal techniques" is a euphemism for ignoring the law. Give it 20 years and Brexit will seem like a genius move, assuming EU loyalists haven't managed to undo it by then.

fidgewidge 4y ago

The EU budget in theory is funded by money allocated by member states and can't go beyond that level. This is fixed law by treaty, Article 310: "The revenue and expenditure shown in the budget shall be in balance." But nothing about EU treaties means anything in practice. This article holds back the EU's power and they can't be having that, so what actually happens is ... https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7787 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... "First half of 2023: Commission to issue up to €80 billion to finance economic recovery and support for Ukraine" The money isn't even being spent on EU member states! Raising money via debt this way is illegal but the EU is not a system of laws, it's a system that does whatever it can get away with politically. That's why it's dangerous: it is a dictatorship that's rapidly growing in power, and it's on track to completely destroy European democracy. An analysis of the treaty problem is here: https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/new-generation-eu-a-constitutional-change-without-constitutional-change/ https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/new-generation-eu-a-constit... It's written by a self proclaimed EU fan who says: "When the COVID-19 crisis hit the Union, the Treaties did not change, but the political circumstances surrounding them did. Building on a Franco-German plan, the Commission came forward with a proposal for Next Generation EU (NGEU), to be financed through borrowing € 750 billion on the financial markets and primarily used as grants to Member States. In other words, the EU issues debt on a massive scale to finance itself. It does exactly what we thought it was prevented by the Treaties from doing. I do not question the need of solidarity, but rather the legal techniques applied to deliver this solidarity. Soon after the adoption of the Commission proposal, the Council website was updated and the reference to the prohibition of debt financing was removed. Apparently, constitutional change was about to take place, however, without a formal constitutional change." Here, "legal techniques" is a euphemism for ignoring the law. Give it 20 years and Brexit will seem like a genius move, assuming EU loyalists haven't managed to undo it by then.