Luxembourg, 15/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - According to the results of a statistical survey carried out by Eurostat that was published on 13 November, the money sent by migrants to their former country of residence from the EU27 member states, usually referred to as workers' remittances, amounted to €26 billion in 2006, compared with €23bn in 2005. These statistics include intra-EU and extra-EU flows. Flows to other member states accounted for a much lower share than flows to countries outside the EU. In 2006, intra-EU27 flows accounted for €7bn or one quarter of the total, and extra-EU27 flows for €19bn or three quarters - the same proportions as in 2005. Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and France are the main remitting member states. These five member states account for more than 85% of total EU27 remittances. The data show that, in 2006, the EU27 as a whole remitted more than double the amount it received from third countries (€19bn sent, compared to €9bn received).
Remittances from migrant workers per member state in 2006 (in billions of €) were as follows: Spain, 6.8; United Kingdom, 5.9; Italy, 4.4; Germany, 2.9; France, 2.4; Netherlands, 0.8; Portugal, 0.6; Austria, 0.6; Greece, 0.5; Belgium, 0.3; Denmark, 0.2; Ireland, 0.5; Czech Republic, 0.1; Luxembourg, 0.1.
In 2004, the 10 most important remittance corridors identified were Germany-Turkey, France-Morocco, France-Portugal, Spain-Morocco, Spain-Colombia, Germany-Poland, Spain-Ecuador, France-Algeria, Italy-Albania, and Germany-Serbia and Montenegro. Apart from intra-EU remittance flows, the main global regions of destination were non-EU Europe, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. (O.L.)