Agricultural expenditure in the European Union budget: a graphical analysis

Abstract

The review of the European Union (EU) budget and the Common Agricultural Policy reform are tightly connected issues influencing each other. We assume that the outcomes will be influenced by their impact on the net balances of Member States (MSs), and use isobudget and isobalance functions to analyse different hypotheses about the EU budget expenditure. These functions are key in understanding substitutability or complementarity between agricultural and other expenditures and shed some light on the positions of the MSs in favour or against possible reform proposals.