Just like how your country levies taxes to pay teachers, build hospitals, repair railways, the EU levies funds from its Member-States to enact EU policies and foster EU solidarity. Simply put, the budget forms the lifeblood of the EU and tells us a lot about what it seeks to accomplish.

Roughly 170 billion euros are spent each year through the EU budget. For you, it represents a cost of about 1€ per day, though this varies greatly depending on where you live and what you seek to do. Consider the following graph, which details the total budget of the EU for the period 2021 – 2027 (expressed in billions of €):

The largest expenditures are cohesion, natural resources and the single market. This is because these are the most integrated areas of the economic and political cooperation between the 27 EU countries.

Cohesion is the primary way through which the EU enacts solidarity between citizens. If you live in one of the poorest regions of the EU, chances are many recent infrastructure projects such as bicycle lanes, railway station or the renovation of your town’s main square were funded by the EU’s budget. This area of EU action also funds popular programmes such as Erasmus +, which provides financial support for young Europeans to study or work in another EU country. The objective of cohesion policies is to provide opportunities for all and level socio-economic disparities between regions.

The second most integrated policy is the common management of natural resources. This is one of the EU’s oldest areas of action. In fact, agriculture takes up nearly 40% of the EU’s budget which provides direct support for farmers, manages biodiversity and fish stocks. Current discussions revolves around the need to shift to sustainable food production.

The single market is the main driving force behind the EU’s economic cooperation. The safety of toddler toys, the type of chemicals that can be used in beauty products, maximum levels of CO2 emissions in cars or the abolition of roaming fees are examples of rules initially decided within the context of the single market. These rules are not set in stone and constantly evolve to reflect political priorities. The core objective today is to leverage the size of the single market as the third largest economy in the world to fight climate change and assist EU countries in their transition towards a carbon-neutral society. The EU is also heavily investing in research and innovation to foster the technologies needed to limit global warming, fostering cross-border partnerships between universities, think-tanks and European companies.

On the lower side of the EU’s budget, we have security, defence, immigration and border management. These are by EU law the least integrated areas of cooperation, a fact that is reflected in their dedicated share of the EU’s budget. Immigration for example has been a contentious issue in recent years. Some countries call for greater EU solidarity, while others argue that it should remain the exclusive competence of national governments. Whether or not the EU should expand its role, and the need for further democratic legitimacy that it entails, is one of the many core questions we collectively must answer.

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