What to Reform in the European Budget? Some Reflections on the Stakes of the Current Budget Review Process
The EU budget is the financial tool supporting European integration. The way it has developed over decades, both as concerns revenues and expenditure, superposed to a complex decision-making process, where member states retain veto rights in crucial respects, means that it currently displays a significant inertia, while its size and structure are not the most appropriate for endowing the Union with the means allowing it to best react to the present-day challenges. Tensions are also rising between the national interests of individual members and the common interest, which previous attempts to reconcile by way of special treatments granted to some countries are clearly unsustainable, while inducing additional rigidities to the budgetary construction. This obviates the need for a comprehensive reform, which the 2008/2009 budget review that the Commission was mandated to undertake may set in motion. The following paper attempts at taking stock of the most significant problems in need of a solution and to explore the most appropriate ways available for tackling them.
Reflections on the Future of the EU Budget, with Special Reference to the Position of the Net Beneficiary Countries
Abstract: Starting with individual households through large companies to countries, the preparation of the budget belongs to the most critical tasks and policy areas. It is not enough to agree on general objectives but consensus has to be created also concerning the disposable amount of money and, not less importantly, its adequate distribution among different priorities. Both the identification of objectives and the character of the compromising process largely exceed the area of direct economic issues. Annual and multi-annual budgets provide an excellent picture of the capacity of the society to think in interdisciplinary context and of its ability to reach reasonable compromises.
To What Extent Can English-as-a-Second Language Learners Read Economic News Texts?
In decision making in the economic field, an especially important requirement is to rapidly understand news to absorb ever-changing economic situations. Given that most economic news is written in English, the ability to read such information without waiting for a translation is particularly valuable in economics in contrast to other fields. In consideration of this issue, this research investigated the extent to which non-native English speakers are able to read economic news to make decisions accordingly – an issue that has been rarely addressed in previous studies. Using an existing standard dataset as training data, we created a classifier that automatically evaluates the readability of text with high accuracy for English learners. Our assessment of the readability of an economic news corpus revealed that most news texts can be read by intermediate English learners. We also found that in some cases, readability varies considerably depending on the knowledge of certain words specific to the economic field.