Ireland receives €979m from the EU

IRELAND received €979 million net from the EU last year, far in excess per head of population than many less wealthy member states.

However, the overall trend for receipts is down, as the country no longer qualifies for cohesion funds designed to raise the incomes of less prosperous regions of the union.

The Irish proved to be the best spenders again in 2006 having used over 90% of its allocation and was held out as an example to the new member states that failed to spend more than two thirds of their funds.

In total, Ireland received €2.46 billion, €32m less than in 2005 and paid in €1.48bn, a rise of €40m over the previous year. The funds received represented 1.63% of gross national income — higher than Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Ireland’s payments to the EU were 0.98% of GNI.

Broken down per head of population, net receipts amounted to a gain of €227 per person, down slightly on the €233received in 2005 and well down on record receipts of €396 pp in 2004.

Agriculture and rural development accounted for €1.7bn of receipts which was the vast majority of Ireland’s allocation. More than €475m was spent on structural projects including education and transport to raise the GDP of poorer regions while €209m went on internal policies including cross-border projects.

Budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite warned the new EU member states they must become more adept at spending the money allocated and advised them to look to Ireland as a role model. Most have spent less than half their funds.

“If you do not spend it you will lose it. Structural changes and changes of government are no excuse,” she warned.

The EU-10 share of the €106bn more than doubled over the last two years to €11.5bn but still accounts for just 12% of the total expenditure with in the EU 25.

The five largest member states got 60% of the total, with France being the largest recipient followed by Spain, Germany, Italy and Britain. However, as a percentage of gross national income (GNI), Luxembourg was the biggest recipient followed by the new member states, Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The biggest contributor continued to be Germany followed by France, Italy, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands.

While the budget rose from €104.8bn to €106.6bn over 2005 it fell as a percentage of the EU’s GNI (.93% compared with 0.97%). While agriculture continues to account for the lion’s share at 35%, it has been decreasing and spending on economic growth and employment, justice and security, and development aid has increased by 68%.

Last year was the final year in the current financial period. The new budget runs from 2007 to 2013.