Brussels, 12/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 12 September, the European Commission adopted a decision setting the amount of money to be received by each of the 25 EU Member States from the Community budget of €77.66 billion given to rural development programmes for the period from 2007 to 2013. This money takes account of the financial framework (€69.75 billion at 2004 prices, and including sums for Bulgaria and Romania), of the regulation setting up the new European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (see EUROPE 9030 and 9874) and the sums given to these programmes through modulation (see EUROPE 9257). Now that the totals have been set, Member States have to present their national programmes to the Commission for validation before payment can begin.
Poland receives the lion's share, with a total budget of €13.23 billion, followed by Italy (€8.29 billion), Germany (€8.11 billion), Spain (€7.21 billion), France (€6.44 billion), Portugal (€3.92 billion), Austria (€3.91 billion), Hungary (€3.80 billion), Greece (€3.7 billion), the Czech Republic (€2.81 billion), Ireland (€2.33 billion), Finland (€2.07 billion), Slovakia (€1.96 billion), the United Kingdom (€1.90 billion), Sweden (€1.82 billion), Lithuania (€1.74 billion) and Latvia. Then come Slovenia (€900 million), Estonia (€714 million), the Netherlands (€486 million), Denmark (€444 million), Belgium (€418 million), Cyprus (€162 million), Luxemburg (€90 million) and Malta (€76 million). Of this total of €77.6 billion, at least €28.54 billion (shared among the Member States, for example, €6.99 billion for Poland) must be reserved regions under the Convergence Objective (for the EU's poorest regions). The Commission says that this decision will be amended once Romania and Bulgaria become members of the EU. Additional money is available for these two countries.