New EU Budget: Good or Bad? (Roman)

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Members of the European Parliament have approved the European Union's 2007 budget, setting spending at 115.5bn euros ($153bn; £76bn).

Although this is a 7.6% rise on 2006, it takes account of the fact that the EU will expand to 27 members next year as Romania and Bulgaria join.

The budget is still dominated by controversial farming payments, which eat up 56bn euros or 49% of spending.

Money available for EU administration was set at 6.9bn euros.

'Competitiveness'

Spending on aid for poorer regions, education, training, innovation, research and development as well as other measures to boost economic growth has seen the biggest increase. source

Do you believe that the EU is heading in the right economic direction?

- The Future of EU Expansion

Personally, I think that if the EU can kept European nations in line with one another, for their own mutual benefit, that they'll be able to move forward. However, I think things could fall apart quite easily due to ethnic and cultural struggles.