New members losing out on EU funds[fr][de] 

The EU-10 are clearly lagging behind on EU funds, according to the Commission's EU Budget 2006 Financial Report, published on 24 September. Of the EU's €106.6 billion budget, only €11.5bn was spent in the EU-10, whereas the five largest member states accounted for €97.4bn of EU spending in 2006.

"This was globally a positive performance for new member states as all of them received more money from the EU budget than in 2005. Yet, they need to do better this year, especially in the cohesion policy," said Financial Programming and Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite.

Among the new members, Poland (€5.3bn), Hungary (€1.8bn) and the Czech Republic (€1.3bn) profited most from EU money. Among the 'old' member states France (€13.5bn), Spain (€12.9bn) and Germany (€12.2bn) received the largest share of EU spending.

However, the EU-10 could be doing a lot better, with 43% of their structural funds and 78% of their cohesion funds going unused. "Don't dream about an endless possibility to absorb these funds," Grybauskaite said. "Absorption levels are not satisfactory and time is running out."

According to the commissioner, Poland is the worst-performing among the new member states concrening money left unspent. "Don’t look for excuses, because there will be no excuses. If Poland isn't able then Poland loses out," she said.