Bullying the European Commission? EU Member States and the Case of EU Budget Support

Over the last years, it has become obvious that different preferences have prevailed within the EU regarding the provision of budget support, ultimately leading to a significant policy shift regarding EU Budget Support in 2012. Our analysis shows that this shift was a result of member states uploading their agenda to the EU level. Member states have exerted extraordinary pressure on the EU to become ‘more conservative’ in delivering budget support. This case thus reveals that member states perceive the role of the European Commission as that of an agent, which is to be controlled and influenced by member states (acting as principals). This is further underlined by the fact that most member states shielded their own domestic budget support policies from influence from Brussels. Given that budget support could be considered a crucial case of EU development policy, we hypothesize that aid remains immune to Europeanization tendencies.