The EU budget and the MFF between flexibility and unity

The negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021–2027 have already started and beyond the controversy over the volume and distribution of funds, the search for a reliable balance between budgetary predictability on the one hand and the need for political adaptability of the budget on the other will certainly become an issue of these negotiations. The EU will have to improve its capacity for response on political challenges accurately and properly through flexibility instruments inside and outside the MFF will have to be brought into line with the budgetary principles of budget unity and completeness. The principle of unity of the budget has exceptions and the most fundamental exception could be a special budget for the Eurozone. But above all the European Parliament’s budgetary participation and control rights and thus the democratic legitimacy of the EU budget as a whole must be taken into account.