Friday, 25 September 2009Greece received almost €6.3 billion from the EU’s budget in 2008, making it the largest beneficiary of EU funds. Greece paid an amount of €2.3 billion in exchange for received funds. Poland comes in second after Greece with a net sum of €4.4 billion.
Officials from the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in Brussels that the largest net payer to the EU budget is Germany, which paid in a net sum of €8.774 billion. According to the report issued by the EU, this marks the biggest contribution by the country in the last 10 years.
The bulk of the money came in payments to Greek farmers and in EU funding for infrastructure projects such as highways and ports. The previous year, Greece had received €5.4 billion from the EU budget. In total, Greece has subsidized more than €85 billion since it has been a member of the EU, joining in 1981.
By Muzaffer Vatansever (JTW)
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Friday, 25 September 2009
Journal of Turkish Weekly
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