Brussels, 15/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Member states' contributions to the European Union budget, in 2008, almost exactly matched agreed spending for the year. With just over 1.5% of the overall EU budget unspent, the high implementation rate of funds has left another record low surplus. This, says a press release published by the European Commission on Wednesday 15 April, reflects “effective budgetary management and ongoing efforts only to call on member states for payments that are strictly necessary”.
The end-of-year surplus - the difference between all EU budget revenue and spending - amounted to €1.79 billion of the total €115.771billion budget in 2008 and will be returned to member states. The largest reimbursements are €356.7 million to Germany, €280.1 million to France, €270.1 million to the United Kingdom, €222.7 million to Italy and €153.2 to Spain. To return this money to EU member states, the Commission submits a preliminary draft amending budget 2009 in order to reduce member states' contributions to the current budget (2009) by the same amount (€1.79 billion). The budget surplus for 2007 was €1.5 billion.
This 1.5% compares to 16% in 2001, when the EU budget surplus was at its peak. European Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitë commented: “Every single euro paid into the EU budget counts and the low level of leftover funds in 2008 demonstrates how money did not lie idle”. Financial management reforms introduced over the past years have seen budget surpluses fall dramatically by 90% since 2001. (L.C./transl.rt)