# CE2004078EN.01034002.xml

| 27.3.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 78/340 |
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27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 78/340

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(2004/C 78 E/0358)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1721/01

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 June 2001)

Subject:   Net budget transfers

Subject:

On 31 January 2001 the Commission submitted its second report on economic and social cohesion, in which it concluded that Portugal was a net contributor to the CAP. In answer to my Written Question P-0897/01, the Commission supplied the study on which it had based that conclusion, taking into account the effects of agricultural trade within the Community and with non-Community partners. The same reasoning could be applied to the budget overall, allowing for the financial balances and the effects of trade as a whole within the Community and with non-Community partners.

Could the Commission therefore specify:

| — | the overall budget balance (net contributors and recipients) for each of the Member States from 1994 to 2001 (estimated), at constant prices; and |
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the overall budget balance (net contributors and recipients) for each of the Member States from 1994 to 2001 (estimated), at constant prices; and

| — | the financial balance for the same period, offset against the gains/losses in trade flows within the Community and with non-Community partners (imports and exports) for each Member State? |
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the financial balance for the same period, offset against the gains/losses in trade flows within the Community and with non-Community partners (imports and exports) for each Member State?

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2001)

(17 July 2001)

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that the Member States' overall budgetary balances for the years 1993-1999, determined according to the standard method used by the Commission (net operational balance after UK correction), can be found in terms of current prices and percentage of GDP in the statistical annex to the report ‘Allocation of 1999 EU operating expenditure by Member State’, table 6 (last table in the report) (1).

1

The report for 2000 should normally be ready before August 2001 (1).

1

These reports are based on actual implementation. The Commission does not publish simulations for Member States' future net balances.

For details of the method of calculating net balances, please refer to point 4.1. of Annex 3 to the report ‘Financing the European Union’, which is available at the same site.

With regard to your second question concerning net balances ‘offset against the gains/losses in trade flows within the Community and with non-Community partners’, the Commission would point out that it does not carry out such calculations.

Nevertheless, in the context of enlargement, its departments commissioned two studies (2) on the effects of enlargement on two existing Member States, Germany and Austria, which also seek to take account of the effects of trade flows in an enlarged Community.

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(1)  http://europa.eu.int/comm/budget/en/agenda2000/a2000rp.htm

1

(2)  http://europa.eu.int/comm/budget/en/financementbudget/elargissement_etude.htm

2

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