European Integration

What is the EU’s Financial Framework today? What is its future? Is there a next step in the common market? Could Europe recover from the economic crisis, increase its influence and credibility in the world economic hierarchy? Each issue depends on the desire of every country to involve in EU context. It’s not easy to think about the future today, but EU wants to react. Indeed, the European Budget is considered as a “relic from another age” but EU is decided to change this image.
We will try to answer these above questions in several parts. Firstly, by explaining what is the actual budget, secondly by explaining the future changes in the budget structures, thanks to Lisbon Treaty and finally we will discuss the negotiation of 2014/2020. The attitude of France toward the reform process will be presented, this country being a big contributor and thus having an important weight in the negotiation.

In order to understand the new issues of the EU, we have to master how the budget is departed. The European Framework is a tool really important in this time of economic crisis. When European Union wants to increase its international presence and improve its competitiveness, the repartition of this European budget become increasingly important. The European budget is governed by three main « own resources » made available by the member state ( Ali M. Agraa: 2001) * TOR (Common Customs Tariff duties and Agricultural levies, and other minor revenues): It represents customs duty perceived by third-country imports and taxes on imports of agricultural products covered by the Common Agricultural Policy. Over the twenty last years, this trend decrease. In 1988 the part was 28%, in 2010 it was 12% and in 2013 it will be 13%. * VAT (Value added tax) element represents the application of a uniform percentage rate to the VAT assessment base. Again, this part trends down significantly. In 1988 it was the most important resource with 57% of the