Quote:
Originally Posted by Xellos-_^
why does the EU need a trillion dollar budget?
it doesn't run a military
it doesn't run a policy force
it doesn't run a welfare system
what does the EU run that needs a trillion dollars?
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They fund
a lot of projects. (for example, most of Ireland's motorways were built with EU funding). A lot of valuable things have gotten funded over the years.
The really big ticket item, however is the
Common Agricultural Policy, which takes half of the EU's annual budget (abut 50 billion euros), and basically a variety of farm subsidies. Generally, I think it should be scrapped. Fortunately the EU seems to be reducing it's budget.
However, there have been a lot of irregular expenses over the last 5 years, namely all the bailouts, which is what is
really causing all the budget disputes. Subsidising Agriculture is cheap compared to bailing out Spain's banking system (and Ireland, Portugal, Greece... with Italy on the horizon!)