EU budget vetoes?

That an individual country in the European Union has the right to veto the Union's annual budget seemed strange to me. Coming from a person who has all the responsibility of his statements, I did not take it lightly. Let us make things clear. The right of veto exists where a decision has to be taken by unanimity. A majority means a stipulated number of a bigger number... 50%, 66%, 75%.

So I decided to find an independent opinion. The source is EU Law, Text, Cases, Materials (2nd ed.) by Paul Craig and Grainne De Burca (Oxford University Press, 1998). To avoid any allegation of misinterpretation I am reproducing pages 101-102 from that book.

Budget procedure

"Given the importance of the budget it is scarcely surprising that the procedures for its making and approval are complex. As will become apparent, they accord the three principal institutions a carefully balanced role in the budgetary process. Moreover, as with many areas of the Treaty, a bare reading of the relevant Treaty provision, Article 272 (formerly Article 203), fails to convey the full reality of the way in which things actually happen. The description which follows will therefore draw on both the Treaty text itself and also on the actual workings of the budgetary procedures.

"It is the Commission which has the principal responsibility for the preparation of the Preliminary Draft Budget (PDB). The Community's financial year runs from January 1 to December 31, and the Commission will begin to work on the budget about one year before it is due. Within the Commission, DG-XIX, the Directorate General for Budgets, will do most of the initial work, with the Budget Commissioner having overall responsibility. This Commissioner will present the PDB to the College of Commissioners for approval. The 1993 Inter-institutional Agreement on the Budget provides for three-way discussions between delegations from Commission, Council, and Parliament before the PDB is approved by the Commission. We noted earlier that since 1988 there has been a financial perspective, and this will constrain the detailed proposals which emerge in the PDB.

"The PDB is then considered by the Council's Budget Committee, which is composed of national officials. From there it will proceed to COREPER. The object of both bodies is to secure agreement on as many items as possible before the Council itself meets.

"Voting in the Council is by qualified majority.(please note)

"If it appears to be likely that there will be conflict between the Council and the Parliament over the division between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure, the 1993 Inter-institutional Agreement makes provision for a conciliation procedure involving representatives of both institutions plus the Commission.

"Once the Council has approved the PDB it then passes to the Parliament for its first reading. Although this is Parliament's first formal look at the budget, it will, as noted above, have already seen the PDB and begun work on it. The principal responsibility falls to the Committee on Budgets. The plenary session of Parliament can then either: accept the PDB; propose amendments to non-compulsory expenditure, or propose modifications to compulsory expenditure. Once again, the financial perspectives will constrain the changes which the Parliament is able to suggest, but, other things being equal, the Parliament has persistently sought to increase non-compulsory expenditure relative to compulsory expenditure.

"The PDB then goes back to the Council for its second reading. It has three options, each of which requires a qualified majority: (Please note).

"It can reject the Parliament's amendments, it can reject modifications to compulsory expenditure proposed by Parliament which do not have the effect of increasing total expenditure, but if it does not do so then the modifications stand; it can accept Parliament's proposed modifications to compulsory expenditure where these do increase total expenditure, but if it does not do so then the modifications fall. If within fifteen days of receipt of the PDB the Council has not modified Parliament's amendments, and has accepted the latter's proposed modifications, then the budget will be deemed to be finally adopted.

"If this does not occur then the next turn of the wheel is for Parliament to have second reading of the budget. It then has fifteen days in which to exercise its options.

"It can, acting by a majority of its members and three-fifths of the votes cast. amend or reject the modifications to its amendments made by the Council. If it does not act within this period then the budget is deemed to have been adopted. The most potent weapon which the Parliament has is to reject the entire budget and request a new PDB. If matters appear to be heading in this direction then there will normally be feverish negotiations between the institutions at all levels."

A challenge

I have reproduced faithfully. Is there any mention of a veto? Is there the right of a single state to block the EU budget? I humbly challenge anyone to contradict Craig and De Burga.