EU structural aid plan likely to cause fresh disappointment among candidates

The European Union (EU) will spend less on its eastward expansion than it originally budgeted, under European Commission (EC) plans to be unveiled this week. A report obtained by Reuters shows the EC has proposed spending euro 40.2 billion for the first three years of enlargement, some euro 2.5 billion less than EU leaders allocated at a 1999 Berlin summit, when they fixed a ceiling of euro 42.6 billion for the period 2004-2006. "The proposals are a compromise between needs and available means," one EU official said. Under EC plans to be presented tomorrow the 10 candidate countries, including Poland, would receive euro 10.8 billion from the EU budget in 2004, the first year of their membership, euro 13.4 billion in 2005 and euro 15.97 billion in 2006. "The aid per capita for structural expenditure in favor of the new member states will increase to euro 137 in 2006," the report says. The candidate countries have already expressed dismay at plans to make farmers in new member countries wait a decade before they receive the same level of direct payments as their EU counterparts receive now. "The Commission proposals, especially in the farm area, are disappointing. They will put our farmers at a disadvantage as far as the competitiveness of our agriculture is concerned," a Polish diplomat said. (Reuters)