Despite a historic fall in spending, last week’s budget deal will help to increase the EU’s effectiveness

At last week’s European Council summit, the EU’s leaders agreed to a real terms spending cut to the EU budget for the first time. Despite this, Patrick Diamond and Renaud Thillaye argue that not only could the overall amount of money spent at EU level be higher in the next seven years, but that a great deal will also depend on the national actors’ capacity to draw on co-financing opportunities. Far from being a disaster for the European centre-left, this budget contains some important aspects, such as the Youth Unemployment Initiative.