The Role of State Budget in Environmental Protection: The Case of European Union Countries

Environmental protection begins to receive more and more attention as more countries are recognizing the link between quality of life, socio-economic development and a well preserved life environment. This paper deals with the issue of environmental protection, focusing on the roles and functions of the state budget in its provision. Budgetary theory, which attributes to the state budget, the role of protector of the environment, is also called environmental or ecological budgetary theory. We pay special attention to the various types and forms of economic instruments in budgetary theory of the environmental protection and environmental policy. In the second part of the article we deal with trends in the growth or fall in the use of economic instruments in environmental policy and de facto budgetary theory of environmental protection in the budgetary process itself. Based on statistics collected by Eurostat and OECD institutions, we can claim that the use of the current budgetary theory has increasing trend, its significance is growing, and we expect a greater use of its applications in future periods.