Green Budget Reform In Europe

This book on Green Budget Reforms (GBR) provides comprehensive insight into how forerunner countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, but also Hungary and Poland, have designed and taken first steps toward GBR, with emphasis on Ecological Tax Reform (ETR). The book covers the proceedings of an international seminar held in Slovenia with contributions from economists of the European Commission, the OECD, finance ministries and researchers. It also includes the first comprehensive case study of Slovenia, demonstrating the unique opportunities for GBR in Central and Eastern European Countries in particular. The book is for policy makers, consultants, lecturers, and scientists who wish to make and measure progress in sustainable development. Readers can choose from a range of market-based instruments applied in various countries and adapt them according to the requirements of their countries.

Budgets have a big influence on the economy and society. With many countries, about 50 percent of total expenditures and income pass through the budget via taxes, charges and expenditures. In recent years many countries, e. g. in the OECD and the EU, have tended to use this influence in an environmentally rational way. Tradi tional environmental policy has relied on command-and-control and cnd-olpipc technologies that have proven to be insufficient in coping with the challenge of glo bal change. Hence, many countries have started to investigate the environmental impacts of their budgets by looking at existing taxes and charges, as well as tax allowances and exemptions and other relevant regulations and expenditures -even to have a special impact on the environment. The implementation of those not meant such findings is now broadly discussed in these countries. This publication will contribute to the debate. It is a result of a wider project called Green Budget Reform -Prospects in Central and Eastern Europe. initiated by Vida Ogorelec Wagner, managing Director of Umanotera, The Sloven ian Founda tion for Sustainable Development, and then jointly developed. proposed to the EC and carried out in partnership with Kai Schlegelmich of the Wuppertal Institute in Germany. The project comprised an international seminar on Green Budget Reform in April 1997 at Lake Bled, Slovenia, and the Case Study of Sloveilla.

This volume explores 25 case studies of fiscal measures that have been adopted successfully by governments in North America and Europe to reduce environmental degradation. Each study lays out the implementation issues and problems faced, and compares the effectiveness of the measure against its expectations. The political implications are also discussed, and the text draws on common themes and lessons to be gained from the measures so far. The volume is divided into sections on energy, agriculture, air and water pollution, and waste management.

A tension between (richer) contributing Member States and (poorer) recipient Member States has always characterised the history of the budget of the European Union, the politics of which has often turned fraught. This volume evaluates the prospects for major change to expenditure and the structure of the budget for the period starting in 2014.

Climate and environmental considerations have become pressing priorities for governments in recent years. International commitments such as the Paris Agreement, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have spurred momentum across the OECD to prioritise green objectives to policy-making processes.

This book deals with the main weaknesses of the EU's finances and tries to explain their originating factors. It also identifies three reforms which seem to be a precondition for progress.

The general review of the European Union’s budget scheduled for the years 2008 and 2009 offers a unique opportunity for reflections. Explicitly this review is “without taboos” so that also substantive changes can and should be debated. Without doubt much better budgetary systems can be imagined compared to the status quo of the EU budget which is the outcome of a path-dependent process and where many details are only understandable by taking account of the historical context of past decisions. However, even if much better systems could be designed in theory, each reform suggestion, in the end, must pass the reality check of fi- ing unanimous support from all 27 member countries. This restriction heavily l- its the universe of available reform options. Faced with that difficulty the ZEW project team embarked on the adventure to think about possible reform options for the future EU own resource system. This volume documents the conclusions. At first sight our reform suggestion may - pear to be of a rather piecemeal nature since we recommend a reform model with strong ties to the status quo. Nevertheless, we are convinced that our seemingly minor changes will set the budget on a path towards a more rational European budget which, in the end, will create leeway for financing European policies with a true European value added. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the German Federal Min- try of Finance in conducting this study.

The main parameters of the EU budget are decided upon every seven years when the MFF (Multi-annual Financial Framework) is negotiated. Before the end of 2016, EU institutions will undertake a mid-term review of the EU’s 2014-2020. This comes in a context of severe turbulences for the EU project: a difficult economic and social situation in most member states, huge migration pressures and new security threats stemming from an unstable environment, and the Britain’s decision to leave the EU. At the same time, EU countries need to face up to climate change and engineer a smooth transition towards an innovation-based sustainable economic model. The EU’s very survival depends on the ability to respond to these multiple challenges in the next few years. Making a smarter and more strategic use of the €960 billion MFF has become a necessity. Can the EU Spend Better? argues that the scope for a substantial revision of the MFF is limited in the short-term. At most, pressing issues such as terrorism and the deteriorated social situation will lead to greater flexibility in the use of existing envelopes. However, the debate starting in 2017 over the next MFF provides with the opportunity of more substantial shifts in four main directions: more investment- and performance-oriented spending; the expansion of climate conditionality to all spending areas; more targeted redistributive spending matched with greater reform conditionality; a more outward-looking budget.

A comprehensive analysis of an environmental tax reform where people are taxed on pollution and the use of natural resources instead of on their income, this book looks at the challenges involved in implementing this tax reform across Europe.