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The Irish at 396 per capita in net receipts from the EU, were the highest in the EU15 while the Dutch headed the net payers at 125 per head. Greeks benefited by 377 per capita, Portugal by 298 and Spain by 200. Germany paid $87 per capita into the EU Budget. Ireland's EU bonanza in 2004 amounted to 1.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) compared with 1.38% in 2003. Last week, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that Ireland would budget 0.7% of GNI for overseas development aid by 2012. Ireland's per capita income from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was 453 compared with France's 157. France got 9.42 billion in funds from CAP while Ireland received 1.83 billion. For a table of net payers/beneficiaries for the period 1992-2004, see Table 5c (page 142) in the allocated expenditure report. The European Commission did not provide the per capita figures in the report this year as the addition of the ten new members limits the value of comparisons as a euro spent in say Poland has greater impact in purchasing power terms than one spent in say Ireland. WE used Eurostat population figures to produce the per capita figures. EU Commission summary on the Budget data: The 2004 budget was a further step towards structural modernisation of EU spending. Some 92 billion were allocated to recipients in Member States. Each country received funds for regional policies, agriculture, competitiveness, jobs and research; 7.5 billion went to countries outside of the Union or benefited several Member States. Main beneficiaries among Member States remain the same as in 2003. For all 10 new Member States, the 2004 accounting budgetary balance was visibly and significantly better than in 2003, when they were outside the EU. At the same time it did not provoke a significant increase of contribution from EU-15. These are the main findings of the Report on the allocation of 2004 EU expenditure by Member State. Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitι commented: The report shows clearly that enlargement was a win-win situation for all members of the Union. The largest recipient of EU funds in 2004 was Spain ( 16.4 billion) ahead of the the populous member states, France ( 12.9 billion), Germany (11.7 billion), Italy (10.4 billion), and the UK (7.1 billion). Spain is the largest recipient of funds under structural operations, followed by Germany, Italy and Portugal. Funds for new member states have only started to flow. Poland (2.7 billion) comes at the 10th place of EU-25. All new Member States recorded a positive net balance, amounting to 2.9 billion for 2004, an increase of 1.3 billion compared with 2003, before they joined. In terms of percent of gross national income (GNI) Greece (3.52 % of national GNI) and Portugal (3.35 %) received relatively most funds, followed by Lithuania (2.81 %), Estonia (2.50 %) and Latvia (2.46 %). Benefits spread across all Member States. The focus of spending is progressively shifting towards policies linked to competitiveness. The shares of different policy headings in 2004 have changed in comparison with previous year. Funds allocated to Member States for structural operations covering cohesion and regional development increased substantially from 28.5 billion to 34.1 billion (+19.8%), as well as for internal policies including internal market and research (from 4.9 billion in 2003 to 6 billion in 2004). Agriculture and rural development allocations to Member States constituted 47.5 % ( 43.6 billion) of the total allocated expenditure in 2004, showing a decrease from 54.1 % ( 44.4 billion) in 2003. In agriculture main beneficiaries remained the same. In absolute terms, France received the largest allocations, followed by Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK. Under internal policies, Germany received the largest amount, followed by France, Belgium, the UK and Italy. EU administrative expenditure was heavily concentrated. Most of the funds went to Belgium and Luxembourg, two of the seats of European Union institutions. National contributions (comprising VAT- and GNI-based contributions) were the largest source of revenue for the EU budget and totalled 82.9 billion in 2004. The remainder came from so-called traditional own resources (customs and agricultural duties), the surplus from 2003, and other revenues The report analyses in detail the allocation by Member State of EU expenditure by policy heading and sub-categories of expenditure. It gives actual implementation figures for the 10 new Member States. It includes complete updated harmonised series on allocated expenditure, revenue and budgetary balances from 1992 to 2004. The Financial Report 2004 shows benefits flowing from this expenditure and was published in May 2005. The report on allocated expenditure is available here. The Financial Report 2004 is available here. RELATED: 1)Beef baron Goodman receives 10,000 a week from EU in farm dole 2)Ahern accuses Blair of "brazen deception and self-interest" as he defends Ireland's EU CAP bonanza 3)EU GDP per capita in 2004: Ireland 40% above average 4)EU: Ireland has the best of both worlds - the Anglo-Saxon and Social Models What did the Romans...sorry...the Europeans do for us? We just got 36 billion ($44 billion) in foreign aid from them since 1973 - and that's in nominal terms. So the value in today's euros is even more.
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