The EU budget is set within a multi annual framework known as the Financial Perspective that has been agreed by the European institutions for 2000 - 2006 and are designed to cover expenditure for the current 15 member countries and for 10 CEECs and Cyprus which are in a process of EU membership negotiations. Within the Financial Perspective, the resources available for a future Union of 21 member countries are limited to a maximum annual ceiling equivalent to 1.27 % of the Union GNP. The budget income systém is made up of the so called traditional resources, a percentage of VAT and a resource based on the countries GNP. During the last few years each one of the income resources has gone through important reforms, some quite successful and others not.

Keywords: European Union, expenditure, Financial Perspective, budget, income resources, budgetary reforms, EU member countries, the future member countries