Much has already been written about the budgetary proposals put forward by the European Commission on 2 May, particularly by Agence Europe, which provided an exhaustive run-down of the ideas that shape the envisaged multiannual financial framework for the period 2001-2027 (see EUROPE 12013). Nobody mentioned the fact that the European Union thus remains the worthy heir of the Soviet Union, which also liked to adopt five-year plans setting out the economic targets to meet. European budgetary...