Community aid to the new Member States[de] 

The EU has earmarked a 22 billion euro purse to finance all structural instruments in the ten new Member States between the years 2004 and 2006. All newcomer states are eligible to such funding once they fulfill the related conditions. These conditions include full compliance with the implementation rules for the structural and cohesion funds as well as with relevant Community policies and legislation. The scheme for the implementation of structural funding was agreed on in December 2003.

The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund cover currently about one third of the EU budget (roughly EUR 36 billion in 2004).

The Structural Funds have three main priority objectives:

• Objective 1: facilitate the catch-up for regions lagging behind in development
• Objective 2: promote the socio-economic conversion of industrial, urban or rural zones or zones which are dependent on fisheries
• Objective 3: provide improved training and job opportunities 

In addition, aid is also granted by Community initiatives which encourage cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation throughout the EU (Interreg III) and equality in the labour market (Equal).

The Cohesion Fund supports environmental and transport projects in the least prosperous Member States.

Breakdown of Community aid to the new Member States 2004-2006 (in million euro)

Country	Obj 1	Obj 2	Obj 3	Interreg	Equal	Cohesion Fund	Total
Czech Rep	1454.27	71.30	58.79	68.68	32.10	936.05	2621.19
Cyprus	0.00	28.02	21.95	4.30	1.81	53.94	113.44
Estonia	371.36	0.00	0.00	10.60	4.07	309.03	695.06
Hungary	1995.72	0.00	0.00	68.68	30.29	1112.67	3207.36
Latvia	625.57	0.00	0.00	15.26	8.03	515.43	1164.29
Lithuania	895.17	0.00	0.00	22.49	11.87	608.17	1537.70
Malta	63.19	0.00	0.00	2.37	1.24	21.94	88.74
Poland	8275.81	0.00	0.00	221.36	133.93	4178.60	12809.70
Slovenia	237.51	0.00	0.00	23.65	6.44	188.71	456.31
Slovakia	1041.04	37.17	44.94	41.47	22.27	570.50	1757.39
Total	14959.64	136.49	125.68	478.86	252.05	8495.04	24451.18