More money to the southern, but less eastern EU members

The European Commission has proposed to allocate more funds from the budget for the southern states affected by the economic and migrant crisis.

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to allocate more funds from the EU budget to Italy and other southern European bloc members affected by the economic and migrant crisis, while at the same time reducing funds for eastern Union members.

Presenting the plan, the EC suggested that the budget for the period from 2021 to 2027 reduce the resources for the eastern EU regions, which, according to Reuters, is likely to come to the sharp criticism of Poland, Hungary and other eastern European countries, which Over the past years, they have relied heavily on these funds for stimulating their own economic growth.

The budget for this period will be increased to 1,100 billion euros with 1,000 billion euros, the "heavy" current seven-year budget.

Reduction of Cohesion Funds for Eastern Members

The EC proposal also foresees more funding for research, security and the digital economy, but less for poorer regions and farmers, Tanjug reports.

This, according to Reuters, will result in a reduction in the so-called. Cohesion Funds for Eastern Members who have contributed to reducing the gap between the poor and wealthy members of the European bloc.

However, the southern members will receive more money from cohesion funds due to a new methodology, which will also take into account the unemployment rate and inflows of refugees and migrants, and not just economic growth, as it was the case so far.

The largest losers compared to the current multi-annual budget are Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia, which, according to the Commission proposal, would lose 24 percent of cohesion funds, followed by Poland, 23.3 percent less, Slovakia 21.7 percent.

On the other hand, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania would gain eight percent, Italy 6.4 percent, Finland 5.1 percent, Spain 5 percent.

The two-digit unemployment rates have plagued Greece, Italy and Spain for years after the global financial crisis of 2008/2009. while in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic they were significantly below the level of 5.0 percent.

Croatia has EUR 500 million less

Croatia would be part of the cohesion policy in the period 2021-2027. it should have at its disposal 8,767 billion euros, expressed in prices from 2018, and at current prices, which takes into account inflation, 9,888 billion euros, the European Commission announced.

In the current multi-annual financial period 2014-2020. Croatia has made available 8.6 billion euros, in terms of prices from 2014.

If inflation is taken into account, Croatia in this multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020. it has 9.3 billion euros.

This means that in real terms, Croatia received less than EUR 500 million or 5.5 percent less than in the current multi-annual budget, Hina reports.

Source: Agencies

• 30 May, 2018
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