_The European Union budget allows the backing of measures adopted by the European Parliament and Council, in accordance with the Treaties. At the moment, the community budget represents 235 Euros per person, per year.
According to the Treaty, the resources for the community budget can’t exceed a maximum limit of 1.24% of the Gross National Product (GNP) of the EU. As a comparison, at a national level, the public resources often represent about 45% of the GNP of the country.
The income of the EU budget results from 3 sources: tariffs (very limited because of the World Trade Organization (WTO)), partly from the VAT from different member states and a national contribution paid directly by member states, proportional to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The European Commission is responsible for the management of the community budget, but shares a large part of the management fees with the member states. The annual budget is negotiated between European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, based on a proposition from the Commission.
To counter the prejudice that Brussels-based EU officials merely twiddle their thumbs or issue “bent cucumber rules”, the European Commission has published a guide presenting the EU’s achievements for its citizens in 2009. Decisions taken at a European level have numerous consequences on our daily lives: the EU enforced cheaper phone calls across Europe and standardised chargers for mobile phones, it increases costumers’ rights for online shopping and it brought in new rules to cut down harmful pollutants from petrol or pesticides. Still not convinced? More examples can be found in the guide, which can be downloaded as PDF.
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