• Discussant: Jens van’t Klooster (Associate Professor, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, and ACES)

Abstract

To avoid being marginalised on the global scene, Europe needs to boost its defence and security, reform its growth model, and take the lead of an alliance of Middle Powers to preserve the rules-based multilateral system. Stepping up the supply of European Public Goods is key to deliver on those priorities, which requires a substantial overhaul of the EU budget on both the spending and revenue sides. The proposal by the European Commission for the new Multiannual Budget 2028-34 scores high on composition and flexibility, but poorly on size. New EU Own Resources are needed and the issuance of EU debt to finance common priorities can no longer be eschewed. Most importantly, the EU budget must not fall prey of the logic of the “juste retour” promoted by national identity politics.

About Marco Buti

Since April 2023 Marco Buti holds the Tommaso Padoa Schioppa chair at the Robert Schuman Centre. Before joining the EUI, he was Chief of Staff of the Commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni. Between 2008 and 2019, he was Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission. Moreover, he has been the Commission Finance Deputy at G7 and G20.

A graduate of the universities of Florence and Oxford, he has published several books over the last two decades as well as many scholarly articles and policy papers on Economic and Monetary Union, the political economy of European integration, fiscal policies and policy mix, unemployment and welfare state reforms, the EU budget, and global economic governance. In October 2021, he published the book ’The Man Inside — A European Journey Through Two Crisis', which revisits the European economic policy design and implementation over the past decade. In April 2023, he published the book 'Jean Monnet aveva ragione? - Costruire l’Europa in tempi di crisi'. In addition, he has recently piloted a research strand on European public goods. 

A regular contributor to the daily 'Il Sole 24 ore', he is also a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and a member of the CEPR Research Policy Network. He is co-editor of the EMU Lab 2026 Florence Report: Reconfiguring Europe in a Fractured Global Economy, to be published on 21 April.