​The EU's financial landscape has evolved over several decades. Its centrepiece is the EU budget, which provides funding for a wide variety of policy areas ­­– such as farming, the development of rural and urban areas, transport infrastructure, research, health, migration, and aid for developing countries – and finances the running of the EU institutions and other bodies. Other EU funds and instruments are established outside the EU budget and are financed, for example, directly by contributions from Member States.