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,...