Six CEE countries to receive almost half of new EU budget for 2014-2020

Almost half of the new EU budget will be allocated to six countries from Central and Eastern Europe, including: Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary [‘CEE-6’], Polish business daily Puls Biznesu reported March 13.

“Assuming the CEE-6 countries are able to use 90 percent of the money from the new EU budget, this should increase GDP growth by about 0.3-0.8 percentage points” said Jan Jedlicki, a director of bureau for European Union at Erste Group, as cited by Puls Biznesu.

The CEE-6 countries will receive EUR 167.1 bln from a total EUR 351.9 bln new EU budget during upcoming seven years, which is 11 percent more than between 2007 and 2013. Out of the six countries, Poland is the biggest beneficiary which should receive 46.4 percent of the total amount allocated for CEE countries.

Experts, however, siad that in order to increase the still low absorption of EU funds in CEE, the countries must reduce red tape, introduce more transparent ways of projects’ selection and start cooperating more closely with each other.

In addition to the aforementioned EU funding, Polish potential beneficiaries of EU funding can also apply for funding from Horyzont 2020 program concentrated on research, development and innovation. The program’s budget is set as EUR 80 bln.