Malta getting €1m back from EU budget surplus

Malta will be getting €1 million back from the EU this year following a surplus recorded by the European Commission in the 2007 budget.

According to strict financial rules, the EU budget must be balanced over the year and any extra cash is returned to member states.

Since, following the closing of last year's accounts, the EU in 2007 had a surplus of €1,529 million, the amount was divided between member states calculated on the basis of each country's Gross National Income (GNI). Malta's share is €1 million.

According to estimates provided by the Commission, last year Malta contributed €57 million towards the EU's coffers and received €76 million in payments.

Although a budget surplus of €1.5 billion may look astronomical, at least in Maltese financial terms, it is in fact the smallest surplus ever registered by the EU since 2000. The total EU's budget for 2007 amounted to €113.846 billion.

The European Commission said that the continued downward trend in budget surplus reflects the European Commission's efforts to ensure member states' payments to EU coffers are limited to what is strictly necessary. The end-of-year surplus - the difference between all EU budget revenue and spending - amounted to just over one per cent of the total agreed spending for 2007.

European Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitë said that effective forward planning, less red tape and good budgetary management made it easier to get new programmes rolling faster in 2007, helping member states direct EU cash to where agreed needs lie.