On 16 June, 2026, the European
Parliament rejected the European Council’s proposed budget for the E.U. not
only because of the proposal’s €32.8 billion budget-cut, which would reduce the
six-year 2028-2034 federal budget even below that which the Commission had
proposed, but also because the Council had refused to address the issue of federal-sources
of revenue, which was made increasingly salient by the increasing need of funds
at the federal level. In seeking to keep the federal institutions dependent on money
supplied by the states, the Council, which like the U.S. Senate represents
states, can be viewed exploiting a conflict of interest at the expense of the
ability of the E.U. to operate even within its given mandates. Put another way,
the requirement that the Parliament pass any proposed budget can be viewed as a
check on the state-centric Council’s proclivity to put the interest of the
parts above the whole—the individual states above the Union.
The full essay is at "The European Parliament."
