07/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Payment requests overestimated. Member states tend to overestimate the requests for payment they intend to make from the structural funds. Last year, they overestimated payment requests by an average of 15%, according to a report on implementation of the structural funds in 2012, published by DG Budget of the European Commission last month. In April of each year, national authorities have to submit forecasts of their payment requests for the current and following years. In 2012, the highest over-estimates were made by Denmark (133%), Romania (97%) and the Czech Republic (58%); four countries, however, under-estimated their payment requests. Poland, Spain, Finland and Austria were the only countries to provide almost accurate payment request estimates, with a margin of error of less than 5%. (MD/transl.fl)