Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics
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Running head recto i Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics How does the European Union deal with conflict among member states and between institutions? This book provides an institutionalist analysis of an important feature of EU decision-making. Focusing on the dominance of conflict in EU budgetary politics, the author introduces the key actors and issues in European budgetary decision-making and traces the main developments in EU finances since the introduction of own- resources and parliamentary co-responsibility in the 1970s. With its analytical emphasis on distributive and institutional conflict, the author reveals the strong impact that rules and procedures have on the ability of EU actors to resolve conflict. Moreover, with its rigorous use of social science methodology, it makes a valuable contribution to the institutional research agenda and presents testable propositions on the influence of institutions and the emergence of institutional change. This book will be of considerable interest to students and researchers of European Union politics and those interested in institutionalist analysis. Johannes Lindner is Counsellor to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. He holds masters degrees from the University of Cologne and the London School of Economics, as well as a doctorate from the University of Oxford. Routledge Advances in European Politics 1 Russian Messianism: 9 Democracy and Enlargement in Third Rome, revolution, Communism and Post-Communist Europe after The democratisation of the general public Peter J.S. Duncan in fifteen Central and Eastern European countries, 1991–1998 2 European Integration and the Christian W. Haerpfer Postmodern Condition Governance, democracy, identity 10 Private Sector Involvement in Peter van Ham the Euro The power of ideas 3 Nationalism in Italian Politics Stefan Collignon and Daniela Schwarzer The stories of the Northern League, 1980–2000 11 Europe Damian Tambini A Nietzschean perspective Stefan Elbe 4 International Intervention in the Balkans since 1995 12 European Union and Edited by Peter Siani-Davies E-Voting Addressing the European Parliament’s 5 Widening the European Union internet voting challenge The politics of institutional change and Edited by Alexander H. Trechsel and Fernando reform Mendez Edited by Bernard Steunenberg 6 Institutional Challenges in the 13 European Union Council European Union Presidencies Edited by Madeleine Hosli, Adrian van Deemen A comparative perspective and Mika Widgrén Edited by Ole Elgström 7 Europe Unbound 14 European Governance and Enlarging and reshaping the boundaries of Supranational Institutions the European Union Making states comply Edited by Jan Zielonka Jonas Tallberg 8 Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans 15 European Union, NATO and Nationalism and the destruction of tradition Russia Cathie Carmichael Martin Smith and Graham Timmins 16 Business, The State and 25 Territory and Terror Economic Policy Conflicting nationalisms in the Basque The case of Italy Country G. Grant Amyot Jan Mansvelt Beck 17 Europeanization and 26 Multilateralism, German Foreign Transnational States Policy and Central Europe Comparing Nordic central governments Claus Hofhansel Bengt Jacobsson, Per Lægreid and Ove K. Pedersen 27 Popular Protest in East Germany 18 European Union Enlargement Gareth Dale A comparative history Edited by Wolfram Kaiser and Jürgen Elvert 28 Germany’s Foreign Policy Towards Poland and the Czech 19 Gibraltar Republic British or Spanish? Ostpolitik revisted Peter Gold Karl Cordell and Stephan Wolff 20 Gendering Spanish Democracy 29 Kosovo Monica Threlfall, Christine Cousins and Celia The politics of identity and space Valiente Denisa Kostovicova 21 European Union Negotiations 30 The Politics of European Union Processes, networks and negotiations Enlargement Edited by Ole Elgström and Christer Jönsson Theoretical approaches Edited by Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich 22 Evaluating Euro-Mediterranean Sedelmeier Relations Stephen C. Calleya 31 Europeanizing Social Democracy? 23 The Changing Face of European The rise of the party of European Identity Socialists A seven-nation study of (Supra)National Simon Lightfoot Attachments Edited by Richard Robyn 32 Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics 24 Governing Europe Johannes Lindner Discourse, governmentality and European integration 33 Gibraltar, Identity and Empire William Walters and Jens Henrik Haahr Edward G. Archer Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics Johannes Lindner I~ ~?io~!!;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2006 Johannes Lindner Typeset in Baskerville by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercail-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Lindner, Johannes, 1974– Conflict and change in EU budgetary politics / Johannes Lindner.—1st ed. p. cm. — (Routledge advances in European politics) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Budget—European Union countries. 2. Finance, Public—European Union countries. 3. Debts, Public—European Union countries. 4. Fiscal policy—European Union countries. I. Title. II. Series. HJ2094.L56 2005 352.4′094—dc22 2005011829 ISBN13: 978–0–415–35679–4 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–49917–0 (pbk) Running head recto vii Contents List of figures and tables ix Acknowledgements xiii List of abbreviations xvii 1 Introduction: An institutionalist perspective on conflict and change in EU budgetary politics 1 PART I Variation in the level of conflict in EU budgetary politics 21 2 A rational choice-institutionalist explanation of conflict in EU budgetary politics 23 3 Obstructing decision-making: conflict between Parliament and Council in the annual budgetary procedure (1974–1988) 46 4 Facilitating decision-making: cooperation between Parliament and Council in the annual budgetary procedure (1988–2000) 82 5 Blocking intergovernmental relations: conflict between the UK and the other member states over British net-contributions (1974–1984) 111 6 Accepting intergovernmental burden sharing: negotiations between Germany and the other member states over German net-contributions within the framework of the financial perspective (1992–1999) 130 7 Summary of the findings and update of the theoretical explanation 148 viii Contents PART II Institutional change in EU budgetary politics 157 8 A rational choice-institutionalist explanation of institutional change in EU budgetary politics 159 9 Resisting reform: the stability of the institutional path of the 1970 treaty and its final breakdown (1974–1988) 173 10 Initiating a new institutional path: stability of the financial perspective and the interinstitutional agreement (1988–2000) 188 11 Summary of the findings and update of the theoretical explanation 200 12 Conclusions 206 Appendix No. 1: The EU budget in figures 219 Appendix No. 2: Financial perspectives 221 Appendix No. 3: Net-contributions and net-benefits of member states 225 Notes 229 Bibliography 245 Index 261 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Overview of the development of expenditure at current prices in millions of Euros 4 1.2 Overview of the annual budgetary procedure 5 1.3 Indirect measure of the level of conflict in the annual budgetary procedures between 1974 and 2000 10 1.4 Indirect measure of the level of conflict over budgetary issues in the intergovernmental setting between 1975 and 2000 11 2.1 The domain of interaction-oriented policy research 23 2.2 Short-term oriented actor 26 2.3 Long-term oriented actor 26 2.4 The structure of the annual budget and the limit imposed by the revenue side 33 2.5 Interaction modes in EU budgetary politics 36 3.1 Conflict in the annual budgetary procedure between 1974 and 1978 47 3.2 Conflict in the annual budgetary procedure between 1979 and 1983 59 3.3 Profile of decisions on price increases for agricultural products (in percentages) 62 3.4 Different interpretations of expenditure classifications in the 1982 budget 67 3.5 Conflict in the annual budgetary procedure between 1984 and 1988 71 4.1 Conflict in the annual budgetary procedure between 1988 and 1994 83 4.2 Conflict in the annual budgetary procedure between 1995 and 2000 97 4.3 Increasing margins below the ceilings in Heading 3 and 4 100 5.1 Summits dominated by disputes over budgetary issues (1975–1988) 112 6.1 Summits dominated by disputes over budgetary issues (1988–2000) 130 6.2 Germany’s net-contributions to the EC budget (1987–1992) 134 6.3 Germany’s net-contributions to the EU budget (1992–1998) 143 7.1 Institutionalist explanation of the level of conflict 149 8.1 Cost of the forms of change 162 9.1 Subfields and interdependence in EC budgetary politics 180 x Figures and tables 11.1 Explanation of institutional stability and change 201 12.1 The annual budgetary procedure in the Constitution (Article III-404) 212 A1.1 Community expenditure from 1960 to 2002 by policies 219 A1.2 ‘Own-resources’ by revenue sources from 1971 to 2002 220 A1.3 Expenditure per capita from 1960 to 2002 (in 2002 prices) 220 A1.4 Expenditure as percentage of the Community’s GDP from 1960 to 2002 220 A3.1 Net-contributions and net-benefits of member states (1980–1990) 226 A3.2