In Slovenia’s first full year as a member of the European Union it was a net recipient of funds. The Budget and Public Accounting Directorate at the Ministry of Finance reported that last year Slovenia paid 40.64 billion tolars into Brussels’ treasury, and received 43.97 billion tolars.
The difference between outgoing and incoming funds thus amounts to 3.33 billion tolars in 2004. The actual amounts are somewhat different than planned. Actual payments to Brussels from the Slovene budget were higher due to changes in economic relations, and income was lower due to lower utilization of pre-accession assistance and because of the fact that Slovenia has not yet begun to receive Structural and Cohesion Policy funds from the European budget. Slovenia will be able to move forward certain unused funds from the European budget. These funds refer mainly to approved rights to take over liabilities, for which the time schedule also applies by which the funds in question will be able to be accessed in the next two years. Thus Slovenia will obtain 30.7 billion tolars arising from rights for 2004, 34.3 billion tolars for 2005 and 44.7 billion tolars for 2006. With regard to Slovenia’s liabilities to the European budget, precise figures will be published in January or February in a Technical Annex to the EU budget for 2005.
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