Personal profile

Educational background

BA University of Sussex

MSc (Econ) London School of Economics and Political Science

PhD London School of Economics and Political Science

Teaching

Undergraduate:

  • PR2001: Power and Democracy in the European Union (module leader)
  • PR3002: Public Policy of the European Union (module leader)
  • PR3106: Power and Money in the European Union (module leader)

Postgraduate:

  • PR5950: European Union Politics (module leader)
  • PR5951: European Union Budget, Revenue and Spending (module leader)

External Examiner:

Personal profile

I was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Budget Policy in 2016. The website for my Jean Monnet Chair activities is located here. My Jean Monnet youtube channel is located here.

My twitter feed is @ggbenedetto

I have published research on the Rise and Fall of Social Democratic parties, the British House of Commons, the European Parliament, the European Union's Budget, and on Euroscepticism in the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Public Policy, Party Politics, Review of International Organizations, and Empirica: Journal of European Economics.

I have been the lead-supervisor to Dr Ana-Iuliana Postu who gained her PhD in 2015 on 'How Committees Run the European Parliament' and to Dr Albena Kuyumdzhieva whose PhD (awarded in 2018) focused on EU counter-corruption policy. I have also co-supervised Dr Adrian Hawley (PhD awarded in 2019) whose thesis title was 'The compatibilty of offline labour platforms of the gig economy with Europe's social market model: Addressing policy gaps in a quasi-federal bloc'. Dr Hawley is currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy here at Royal Holloway.

Since 2020, I am co-supervising Diana Bartmann whose research focuses on the political consequences of parliamentary ethics violations in the UK.

Research interests

My main areas of research are on the budgets and revenue of the European Union. I also have research interests in comparative party politics, with particular regard to social democracy.

My PhD thesis (London School of Economics) of 2005 on Institutionalised Consensus in the European Parliament is available for download here for free subject to academic or not-for-profit use as well as due citation as follows: Benedetto, Giacomo (2005) Institutionalised consensus in Europe’s parliament. PhD thesis, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London. It is accessible at: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/848/

Consultancy

I am a co-author of a study on the potential and limitations of reforming the financing of the EU budget, provided for the EU's High Level Group on Own Resources chaired by Mario Monti, and on this subject I participated in follow-up meetings with the European Commission. On four occasions, I have given evidence to the European Parliament's Budgets Committee or Budgetary Control Committee on different aspects of the EU's budget and its auditing, and to the House of Lords EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee on Brexit and the EU's budget. In 2019, I authored a briefing on the History of the EU Budget for newly elected Members of the European Parliament. In 2022, I was one of two external experts to provide advice to the European Court of Auditors about its assessment of the transparency and accountability of the funds around the EU's budget; the new Next Generation EU fund of €800 billion, for example, is borrowed on the financial markets and paid back from the EU's budget, thus exposing tax-payers' money to risk and raising questions of accountability.

I have also authored budget-oriented publications for three think tanks in Brussels: the Centre for European Policy Studies, the European Policy Centre, and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Finally, I have provided training on the EU’s budget for officials working at the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Investment Bank.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

External positions

External Examiner, King's College London

1 Sept 2017 → …

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or