Brussels, 28/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission is to adopt a communication on the budgetary aspects linked to the EU's enlargement to ten new countries of Central and Eastern Europe in order to prepare proposals of common positions that will be submitted to the Council. The communication will comprise separate chapters on agriculture and regional aid. EUROPE has reason to believe that the Commission's intended "balanced approach" will allow agricultural spending with regards regional aid to be reduced so that there is problem-free enlargement financing under the ceiling of the 2000-2006 financial perspectives, in compliance with the wishes of certain Member States.
Contrary to the approach initially envisaged (see EUROPE 18/01, p.8), the Commission is not expected to propose postponing until 2004, 2005 and 2006 the payments foreseen under Heading 8 (accession expenditure) for 2002, 2003 and 2004. Enlargement will no doubt cost the EU budget (in payment appropriations): EUR 5.7 billion in 2004, EUR 10.5 billion in 2005 and EUR 11.8 billion in 2006, that is, EUR 28 billion over the period 2004-2006, which represents EUR 6.5 billion less compared to the financial perspectives finalised in Berlin. In this package, which covers agriculture, structural action, internal policies and administration, additional spending will be foreseen for targeted measures: - nuclear safety: EUR 60 million in payment appropriations (2004-2006) in favour of Slovakia and EUR 181 million for Lithuania; - structural actions: allocations of EUR 28 million in 2004, 57 million in 2005 and 72 million in 2006 in favour of the northern part of Cyprus under Turkish administration.
The new Member States will benefit from 100% agricultural aid in 2013
According to the latest casting of the draft text from the services of Commissioner Franz Fischler, the level of direct payments to candidate countries could reach 25% of the Community average in 2004 (that is, nearly EUR 3.3 billion in payment appropriations), 30% in 2005 and 35% in 2006, and so on until 100% is reached in 2013, after a transitional period of ten years. With the simplified procedure, the new Member States are expected to have the possibility, during a limited period (at least three years) of granting direct payments per hectare, hence not linked to production. The minimum size of farms eligible to this system would be 0.3 hectare. This strategy would allow the setting in place of a system that is easy to implement and control, which would make it possible to reduce the risk of irregularities. The level of milk and sugar quotas would be calculated on the basis of recent historical reference periods: between 1995 and 1999. Regarding rural development (EUR 1.5 billion in 2004), the share of co-funding for candidate countries would be limited at 20%. The candidates will benefit from considerable rural development aid - benefits for retirement, aid to the establishment of young farmers and the financing of producer organisations - in order to facilitate restructuring.
As far as structural funds are concerned, the adjustments proposed should allow average aid of EUR 137 per capita to be reached in the candidate countries in 2006, compared to 126 initially foreseen in Agenda 2000, to be compared to 231 euros per inhabitant that the so-called cohesion member countries will continue to receive at the same date. The Commission's approach consists in confirming the decisions taken in Berlin whereby the Community funds would not exceed 4% of the GDP of Member States, a figure never reached within the EU. On average, the new Member States should thus receive amounts that represent 2.5% of Community GDP.