Brussels, 16/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Statistics Office has reached a decision on how EU budget transfers are registered in national accounts in Member States. This will help ensure comparison of data between Member States. EU transfers should not have an impact on state deficits/surpluses despite chronological disparities between pre-funding measures taken by the public authorities and when the EU executes reimbursements.
When the beneficiary of a transfer from the EU budget is not a public administration (such as farmers receiving agricultural subsidies) but has paid out advances to beneficiaries, the advances or EU transfer to the public administration cannot be registered in the public accounts. This means that there will be no impact on the public deficit or surplus.