This thesis assesses the underlying political and financial reasons of the recent budgetary crisis of the European Union. It aims to discuss the possible reform alternatives for the European Union budget in order to improve it to better serve for the objectives of the enlarged Union and to enable the Member States to share the budget burden more fairly. To this purpose, the thesis first analyzes the budget of the European Union in terms of its aims, evolution and structure of revenue and expenditure items and than presents a general overview of the shortcomings of the present own resources system. In general, the thesis discusses possible reform areas, in which the reform process could take place. The thesis also shows how the Union overcame the policy challenges, and particularly the budgetary implications brought out with the inclusion of Central and Eastern European countries and how its financial perspectives covering the 2000-06 and 2007-2013 periods were finalized.

The budget of the European Union has accomplished a significant role for European integration in the history of the Union. However, it has not resulted into anticipated developments compatible with the Union&rsquo / s institutional policy reform process in the last decades. The budget has emerged as a consequence of path dependent developments in its historical progress, which has dragged the European Union to a critical stage. It is rather challenging for the Union now to sustain the current structure of the budget, since it exposes some disadvantages to continue with this structure in an enlarging and deepening Union. In spite of various reform proposals, there is no appropriate theoretical ground for the budgetary politics of the European Union to be channelled through strengthening the link between the Union and European citizens. This thesis attempts to approach the existing problems associated with expenditures and revenues of the current budget from the social constructive policy perspective, in line with the major question of &ldquo / how the budget can be made more socially constructive by utilizing expenditures and revenues?&rdquo / The study has three major objectives. Firstly, it presents a historical evolution of the European Union budget in order to explore path dependent developments inherent to its historical progress. Secondly, it offers a critical analysis on the expenditure and revenue sides of the budget. Thirdly, it introduces a social constructivist policy approach on this subject as an alternative to the most prevalent approach of fiscal federalism.

Atkūrus nepriklausomybę Lietuvos fiskalinėje politikoje įvyko daug labai svarbių permainų: įvestas fiskalinis valdymas, tinkantis rinkos sąlygoms; mokesčių reforma iš esmės pakeitė valstybės pajamų sandarą, o valstybės finansų išlaidų sąrangą buvo pakeista perskirstant funkcijas tarp įvairių valdymo lygių ir skolos valdymas iškilo kaip visai nauja viešųjų finansų sritis. Šio darbo tema – “Lietuvos savivaldybių biudžetai (Vilniaus miesto savivaldybės biudžeto pavyzdžiu) ir biudžeto reforma Lietuvoje”. Pasirinka tema yra labai aktuali. Šiuo metu Lietuvoje vykdoma biudžeto reforma, kuria siekiama pagerinti valstybės bei savivaldybių biudžetų planavimą bei biudžeto procedūras, patobulinti finansinių išteklių valdymą ir kontrolę, o taip pat spręsti klausimus susijusius su Europos Sąjungos finansine parama. Nagrinėjant savivaldybių biudžetų klausimus, vienas svarbiausių ir aktualiausių - kokio lygio turi būti savivaldybių fiskalinis savarankiškumas. / The subject of the thesis is “Budgets of Lithuanian Municipalities (on the example of Vilnius City Municipality Budget) and Budget Reform in Lithuania.” The subject is very urgent. At present the budget reform is being carried out in Lithuania, and the aim of the reform is to improve planning and procedures of national and municipal budgets, to perfect management and control of financial resources and also to solve the problems related to the European Union budget. Considering the budget problems of municipalities one of the most important and urgent problems is what the level of fiscal-dependence of municipalities should be. The purpose of the thesis is to consider financing of municipality budgets and to analyse and evaluate the main regulations of the budget system reform in Lithuania and to present the conclusions. To reach the purpose, the following tasks are raised in the thesis: to examine Lithuanian budget system; to consider fiscal decentralization level in Lithuania; analyse the structure of finance in Lithuanian municipalities and describe the municipality budget; to consider and evaluate the budget reform. The thesis raises the following hypothesis: municipalities do not have fiscal self-dependence enough, that is why not all principles of the budget reform are effectively put into practise.

In the sixty-three years of the United Nations' existence the international stage has evolved significantly, and the world today is different from that when the original United Nations Charter was drafted. Therefore, it is only natural to expect the organization to evolve, in order to fully embrace the changes in the international community and to be able to address these changes efficiently. However, reform to the United Nations has been slow. This lack of change is due to various factors, particularly the lack of cohesiveness among member states and the inability of these to reach an agreement. Member states are unwilling to provide the organization with the power and respect it needs in order to carry out its mandates, therefore, the United Nations becomes an organization with a big to do list, and no way to carry it out. The United Nations may be outdated; however, it is far from being obsolete since it is an important player in the international community and serves endless imperative missions and mandates. It is up to the international community to decide what direction they want the United Nations to take and what the organization will become in the upcoming years. IN the meantime, this study will discuss the possibilities of reform regarding UN budget, the Secretariat and the Security Council. The United Nations is constantly underfunded which is a great limitation on what the organization can do and how well it can do it. Member states expect the organization to function while being starved of funds. Underfunding can be attributed to various issues, particularly the withholding of payments from members states, lack of alternative resources and the high operating costs of the organization. The United Nations works under the guidance of the United Nations Secretariat, which can be considered the organization's administration. Administrative reform is imperative to create a more efficient Secretariat, particularly the areas of staff qualification and the selection and role of the Secretary General; both areas play an essential role in promoting an efficient Secretariat. The Security Council was formed with special privileges to the five superpowers at the time of the Charter's drafting. However, as the international community evolved and power shifted, these privileges had been maintained. Security Council reform should redistribute power accordingly in order to represent the realities of the world today. This study will address the main areas of criticism within the organization: the Budget, the Secretariat and the Security Council, and match them with reform proposals introduced to the organization to address these specific criticisms. Once these criticisms have been matched to reform proposals this study will analyze the reasons why these reforms have failed to materialize over the years and how this has affected the organization. Furthermore, it will address the reasons for lack of action by member states and the possibilities of these reforms taking place in the near future. The goal of this study will be to further understand the reasons why the United Nations has come short of its expectations and how lack of reform is to blame.

Submitted by Fernanda Vianna Gurjão (fgurjao@fgvmail.br) on 2013-12-04T16:33:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Reformas orçamentárias - iniciativas do poder legislativo de 1990 a 2010. Fernanda Vianna Gurjão. – 2012..pdf: 695954 bytes, checksum: 319c534a05d9910079e35d645f22a28a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2013-12-09T17:53:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Reformas orçamentárias - iniciativas do poder legislativo de 1990 a 2010. Fernanda Vianna Gurjão. – 2012..pdf: 695954 bytes, checksum: 319c534a05d9910079e35d645f22a28a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-12-12T11:43:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Reformas orçamentárias - iniciativas do poder legislativo de 1990 a 2010. Fernanda Vianna Gurjão. – 2012..pdf: 695954 bytes, checksum: 319c534a05d9910079e35d645f22a28a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-12T11:44:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Reformas orçamentárias - iniciativas do poder legislativo de 1990 a 2010. Fernanda Vianna Gurjão. – 2012..pdf: 695954 bytes, checksum: 319c534a05d9910079e35d645f22a28a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-09 / The Public Budget is the primary tool for planning and managing Public Administration. It is worth mentioning the existence of his dual character, being bounded on one side by a normative and legal perspective and on the other by the changes and aspirations of society. In this context, this research seeks to highlight the key initiatives by the Federal Legislature to modify the structure of the public budget, acting directly on the laws that rule it. The chosen period covers the years between 1990 to 2010 there are characterized by the process of democratic consolidation and institutional change in the country. The results shows that the efforts of prospective budget reform in the Brazilian case seeks to reverse the historical trend of centralization of the Federal Executive decision-making and also limit their discretion in dealing with the Public Budget. / O Orçamento Público configura-se como o principal instrumento de planejamento e gestão da administração pública. Cabe destacar no mesmo, a existência de uma característica dual, sendo de um lado delimitado por uma perspectiva normativa e legal e, de outro, pressionado por mudanças e anseios sociais. Considerando esta característica, buscou-se destacar quais foram as principais iniciativas por parte do Legislativo Federal para modificar a estrutura do orçamento público, atuando diretamente nas leis que o regem. O período escolhido compreendeu os anos entre 1990 e 2010, caracterizado pelo processo de consolidação democrática e de modificação institucional do país. Os resultados mostram que parte dos esforços prospectivos de reforma orçamental no caso brasileiro busca reverter a histórica tendência do centralismo decisório do Executivo Federal e também limitar sua discricionariedade no trato do Orçamento Público.