PM Satisfied With EU Budget Deal

Brussels, 17 December

Prime Minister Janez Jansa said that Slovenia was leaving the EU summit in Brussels satisfied with the deal that was reached by EU leaders on the 2007-2013 EU spending plan.

According to Jansa, Slovenia will have the same net beneficiary status as it would have had under the proposal put forward by Luxembourg back in June, when a deal was not reached.
"Slovenia's net receipts for the seven year period will be at least two billion euros," Jansa told the press after the marathon summit, which ended in the early hours of Saturday.
He added that it was impossible to come up with exact figures for Slovenia at this time. The situation is the clearest as regard cohesion funds, he said.
"We expect to get almost four times the cohesion funds that we have so far - that is SIT 120bn (EUR 500m) annually. This is enough to provide a substantial boost to Slovenia's development," he said.
"We have by all means achieved what we set out to do: Slovenia's net beneficiary status is at least twice as good as it was in the current EU budget period," he said.
According to State Secretary for European Affairs Marcel Koprol, figures from the European Commission show that Slovenia's net receipts from the EU budget would amount to 0.87% of gross national income between 2007 and 2013. Meanwhile, British figures say that Slovenia could receive as much as 1.02% of GNI in funds from the budget.
The figures are the same as Luxembourg's proposal and a touch under what the initial British deal had proposed, he added.
However, the net beneficiary status is not the only crucial issue in the deal, Jansa said, adding that improved conditions for the phasing of EU cohesion aid was an important part of the agreement.
Until 2010, Slovenia will have additional time to draw all the funds available to it, while the country's share in EU-sponsored projects will also be lower (15% instead of 20%), he explained.
Jansa said he was pleased with the overall deal. "The outcome is better than we had expected after the first proposals. The structure of the budget is better and more money has been set aside for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy."
He explained that the latest British proposal, which raised slightly the spending cap, resulted in additional development funds being made available. However, the changes had no substantial effect for Slovenia.
Moreover, the Slovenian prime minister praised Britain for agreeing to a further cut in its rebate. Britain's agreement to exclude all enlargement-related effects from the rebate "was a brave step forward", he said.
He also welcomed the agreement by EU leaders to commit to a thorough future overhaul of the EU budget.
Although the EU budget deal still needs approval from the European Parliament, Jansa believes that this should be much easier now that there has been an increase in the funds envisaged for administrative costs in the EU.
Jansa also hailed the decision of the EU leaders to grant Macedonia the status of an EU candidate country. This is an important signal for Macedonia and the whole of the Balkans, he said.

PM Satisfied With EU Budget Deal

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