First, even though part of expenditure is not directed explicitly towards this objective, most of it is. Secondly, it is recognised in the Treaty that contributions to the Budget must take account of the differential ability to pay and that measures need to be taken to ameliorate the adverse situation of the less wealthy Member States. Although the cohesion countries are net beneficiaries from the Budget, there is not necessarily a negative relationship between budgetary positions and levels of GNP across Member States, since expenditure includes that devoted to purposes other than cohesion. The EU Budget contains no stabilisation function as such. Examples of the former are expenditure on research, trans-European networks and the environment, while expenditure on the CAP is an example of the latter.
Allocative expenditure aimed at improving the free market outcome poses more difficulties.
In the case of the CAP, for example, it is intended to support prices at a level which gives a fair income to farmers. The cost of this depends on the gap between market prices and support prices, while farmers' income depends only on the level of the latter. However, an important part of the CAP takes the form of direct income support to farmers and is, therefore, redistributive in nature. EU redistributive expenditure Redistributive expenditure is the main instrument of cohesion policy. This was boosted by the Delors I and II packages, which first institutionalised structural spending and its programming and then expanded the amount and established the Cohesion Fund.