Malta is to get a refund of €800,000 from the European Union after 1.5% of the bloc's budget for 2008 went unspent, the European Commission said today.

"In 2008, member states' contributions to the European Union budget almost exactly matched agreed spending for the year. With just over 1.5% of the EU budget unspent, the high implementation rate of funds has left another record low surplus, reflecting effective budgetary management and ongoing efforts only to call on member states for payments that are strictly necessary," the Commission said.

The refunds to the member states are calculated on the basis of each country's Gross National Income. As a result, Germany gets the biggest refund, at €356.7m and Malta the smallest. Next lowest after Malta is Cyprus, which gets a refund of €2.4 million.

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