Managing the Finances of the Union

Abstract

The Union’s budget of some ECU 80 billion, like the finances of all multi-leveled governance structures, raises particular management challenges. Formally, the Commission is responsible for implementing the budget but, in practice, implementation involves very complex procedures with responsibility widelyscattered between EU-level institutions, central governments, para-governmental agencies, local and regional authorities, private companies and individuals. The analysis of EU finances so far draws attention to the multiplicity of programmes and thousands of individual budgetary lines which give rise to over 400 000 individual authorisations of expenditure and payments each year. The day-to-day implementation of the budget involves the Commission in the management of elaborate application procedures in all its spending directorates, the formal authorisation of expenditure, the clearance of payments and evaluation of how EU monies have been spent. The Commission is at the centre of a vast web of heterogeneous interorganisational and intergovernmental networks stretching from Brussels to the remote corners of the member states and beyond.