This is a new edition of 'Strasser' on the finances of Europe. Daniel Strasser. who was for 15 years Director and subsequently Director-General for Budgets in the Commission of the European Communities and is now a member of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities, is an acknowledged expert on the public finances of the Community. In 'The Finances of Europe' the author describes the various rules and regulations governing the European Community's budget, pointing out the limits of its financial autonomy and introducing the various protagonists and their roles in the drawing up, implementation and monitoring of the Community's finances. From the initial struggles for budgetary power to the latest developments in the exercise of this power, all the financial mechanisms of the Community are described in this work, making it a valuable aid to understanding the subject, which is so important yet so unfamiliar to the European taxpayer in today's rapidly evolving Community. This is the seventh edition of The finances of Europe. The first edition was published in French by the Presses Universitaires de France in 1975. The second, updated edition was published in English by Praeger, New York, in 1977 and in Spanish by the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, Madrid, in 1978. The third edition, again updated, was published in German by the Europa Union Verlag, on behalf of the Institut für Europäische Politik, Bonn, in 1979 and in Italian by Le Monnier, on behalf of the journal L'Italia e l'Europa, Florence, in 1980. The fourth (revised) edition was published in French by Labor-Nathan, Brussels, in 1980. It was then translated and published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, in the other eight languages of the Communities, id est Spanish, Danish, German, Greek, English, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. The fifth edition (a revision of the fourth) was published in French by Labor-Nathan-RTL, Brussels, in 1984. The sixth edition is a complete recasting of the first and second parts of the fifth. It was published in French in 1990 by the Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 26 rue Vercingétorix, Paris (14e). The seventh edition is a translation of the preceding one, brought up to date in 1991. It will also be produced in German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. A supplement was drafted after the European Council held in Maastricht on 9, 10 and 11 December 1991 whilst this work was being printed. This updated text is at the end of the book, after the annexes and before the index.