Brussels, 19/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - Although only announcing the news on Monday 19 April, the European Commission adopted a communication on 16 April on adjusting the funding, allocated from Funds that support cohesion policy, to member states whose forecast GDP varied from real GDP over the period from 2007 to 2009. Poland will receive an extra €633 million, the Czech Republic €237 million and Slovakia €138 million in structural funds. The top-up is a direct consequence of stronger economic growth than forecast in these countries.
The Inter-institutional Agreement on Budgetary Discipline and Sound Financial Management of 17 May 2006 provides for automatic adjustments in Column 1B for countries whose GDP had varied by more than 5% cumulatively over 2007-2009 compared to the forecasts when drawing up the framework. Over this period, three member states recorded variations of more than 5%: the Czech Republic (+7.5%), Poland (+8.0%) and Slovakia (+10.8%). These three will share an envelope of €1.007 billion. Each country will receive an amount proportional to its initial allocation under heading 1B (Cohesion Policy). The total amount will be paid in three annual increments of €336 million (commitment appropriations) between 2011 and 2013. The amounts allocated to the three countries will be added to the current ceiling of heading 1B of the financial framework, thus increasing the total for this heading from € 347,407 million to € 348,415 million for the period 2007-2013. This automatic adjustment does not require the approval of Council and Parliament. (L.C./transl.rt)