large share of the EU budget. Nevertheless, its portion of the EU budget has dropped from a peak of nearly 70% in the 1970s to 34% over the 2007–2013 period." References Bindi, Federiga, ed. The Foreign Policy of the European Union: Assessing Europe's Role in the World (Brookings Institution Press; 2010). The E.U.'s foreign-policy mechanisms and foreign relations, including with its neighbours.