Publication

The Budget Review aimed to align the EU budget to today's challenges, and to introduce significant reforms. But the policy environment, including the impact of the crisis, and the political economy of budget negotiations have changed significantly. In addition, the Lisbon Treaty has enshrined a status quo bias by stipulating that, if no agreement is found, the last year of the previous budget framework is continued, giving many actors an incentive to block progress if the situation deviates too far from previous outcomes.