In a Nutshell

As the EU enters negotiations over its next seven-year budget, Euractiv reports that Austria’s minister for European affairs, Claudia Bauer, is pushing back against the European Commission’s proposal to spend more than €100 billion on EU administration, including plans to create 2,500 additional civil service jobs. Bauer specifically questioned whether all EU agencies operate in areas where the EU has clear competence, suggesting some could be closed. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has voiced similar concerns, calling the proposed administrative spending increase of over 20 percent unacceptable. 

Our Take

It is not clear to us at the 451 Institute whether or not the budget expansion is justified. This story, however, is a good illustration of an argument for institutional restraint and power incentives, which are more interesting to us.

The Commission’s argument that it needs more staff and budget is that it has an expanded mandate. But that expanded mandated may signal mission drift, especially in times of crises. Every new crisis is an opportunity for decision-makers to expand their footprint, and that footprint virtually never contracts once the urgency passes.

The deeper question is less about the absolute budget number than about institutional incentives: when the body proposing the budget is also the body that would administer it, there is a natural asymmetry in favour of expansion. 

Read the full story at Euractiv.