Budget of the European Union (EU) is its annual financial plan. It funds actions generating European added value and those whose costs would be higher had they been financed solely by national budgets. The EU budget finances EU policies, e.g. Cohesion Policy and Common Agriculture Policy and programmes supporting protection of EU’s external borders, trans-European energy and transport networks, international scientific cooperation and international student exchange.
The EU budget is balanced. Its spending must be held within approved limits; thus it can’t run a deficit and generate a debt.
The European Commission is responsible for managing the EU budget but vast majority of spending is implemented jointly with Member States under the shared management mode.
Annual EU budgets are subject to limitations set out in the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The EU’s MFF is a multiannual (currently seven-year) financial plan of the EU.
The annual EU budget is adopted within a special budgetary procedure laid down in Article 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Draft annual EU budget is prepared and proposed by the European Commission. It is then negotiated and adopted by the Council of the European Union (that is Member States' governments) and the European Parliament.
The Government of the Republic of Poland is represented in these negotiations by the Minister of Finance. Adoption and implementation of the EU budget fall within the remit of the EU Budget Unit at the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland.
Yearly spending of the EU budget corresponds to ca. 1% of the EU28's gross national income.

The EU budget spending in years 2010-2017 is shown in the table below.

(billion EUR)

Source: European Commission