Slovenia Got All promised EU Funds in 2004
Slovenia received all the promised EU budget funds in 2004 and, like other EU newcomers, ended the year as a net recipient, according to the Report on Allocation of 2004 EU Operating Expenditure by Member State, which was released in Brussels on Thursday.
According to the report, which does not contain data about the actual phasing of the funds, Slovenia paid EUR 169.6m into the budget last year, and received EUR 272.7m.
Although there were a few problems, none of the new member states had major difficulties with the allocations, European Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite told the press.
She did not comment on the fund-phasing capacity of the newcomers, adding only that most of the countries have started using these funds successfully.
The ten newcomers had a combined net gain of EUR 2.8bn: they made budget payments of EUR 3.1bn, but received EUR 5.9bn. Poland got the bulk - EUR 2.7bn on payments of EUR 1.4bn.
Yet the newcomers are far from being the largest recipients of budget funds: in real terms, Spain was the biggest recipient (EUR 16.4bn), followed by France with EUR 12.9bn and Germany with EUR 11.7bn.
By share of GDP, Greece is the biggest recipient (3.52% of GDP), followed by Portugal (3.35%) and Lithuania (2.8%).
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