Macroeconomic Functions of the European Union Budget and the Multinational Financial Framework for 2014-2020
This study aims to identify macroeconomic functions of the EuropeanUnion budget and an indication of the possibilities and extent of the impact of thebudget on the economy of the Community, as well as evaluating the functions performedon the background of Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020.The budget of the European Union – despite many different opinions – can actsand actually performs close macro functions which are attributed to the modernnational budgets. In order to demonstrate the veracity of this claim there werereviewed literature on the economic functions of the national budget, and it wasreferenced to the regulations of the functioning of the general budget of the EuropeanUnion. This demonstrated the specificity and limitations of the impact of thisbudget on the economies of the Member States. Functions which are performed bythe European Union budget were analyzed against the Multiannual FinancialFramework for 2014-2020. The result of this study shows that the budget of theEuropean Union performs five of the traditional functions of the state budget:redistributive, allocative, stimulus, information and control, and fiscal. But it doesnot perform the stabilizing function. The specificity of the impact of the EU budgetshows the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020, which includesa particularly difficult period in the history of the Community – a period of recoveryfrom the financial and economic crisis, as well as discussions and seekinga compromise on the shape and the possible strengthening of European integration in support of the primary instrument of fiscal policy, which is the budget. Currentissues are therefore discussed in this paper, which are part of a Europe-wide debateon the future of the Community.