Transcript The EU Budget Review: Mapping the Positions of Member States

The EU Budget Review:
Mapping the Positions
of Member States
The Case of Bulgaria
19 May 2008
Sofia
Kalin Marinov
Director Economic Projects and Programmes
Economic Policy Institute
Challenges in Forming the Bulgarian
Position on the EU Budget
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“Newcomer” in the negotiations
Net beneficent
Process of economic convergence
National funding/ EU funding
CAP Reform?
Requires very active position
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Crucial EU funding in the sector
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“Addiction to EU funding”
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Avoiding chaotic national policy – long
term view needed
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Equal access to funding
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EU Tax
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Bulgaria is still not ready for implementation of
EU Tax (increasing the tax burden)
Direct taxation (subsidies – no public services regulations)
 Indirect taxation (acceptable in the next financial
framework 2014-2020 after solving the VAT issue)
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Negotiation over the EU Tax in correlation with
size of the national payments to the EU Budget
Discussions over the Size of the
EU Budget
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Level of integration within the EU (any decision
should be taken not on the national but on the EU
level)
Impacts of future enlargements of the EU (to be
considered in the next Financial Framework 20142020)
At least 1% of EU GNI (likely position of other
net beneficent countries)
The size of the EU Budget should fully match the
ambitions
Expenditure of the Common Budget
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Adequate distribution among different priorities
Efficiency – common funding should generate
better results and production with higher Gross
Value Added (GVA)
CAP
Structural & Cohesion policies (orientated much
more on development objectives)
Reforming the Expenditure Framework (1)
(Challenges in the Bulgarian Context)
Major infrastructure projects (on regional level; on
national level; on the international level)
Increasing the competitiveness of the SMEs sector
R&D
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stimulating Bulgarian business
strengthening the collaboration between business and
research centers
lifelong learning
Reforming the Expenditure Framework (2)
(Challenges in the Bulgarian Context)
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Migration policy
Managing the external borders of the EU
Labour market development
Energy policy
EU as a global player
The future of EMU
Enlargement of the EU (1)
Croatia
Realistic chance to become a member until 2013
relatively good economic performance – near the
EU average (GDP per capita, GDP growth; labour
productivity)
 strong indicators for sustainable development
(social inclusion, good governance, environmental
solutions)
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Enlargement of the EU (2)
Turkey
Accession of Turkey – Major challenge for EU
integration process/EU Budget
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large agricultural sector (shortage of technology, low
productivity)
demographic reality & High unemployment
large regional gaps in terms of economic development
within the country
external frontiers of the EU/internal with Bulgaria
Thank you for your attention!
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.epi-bg.org