Financial Times
October 2, 2011
A planned €2.9bn ($3.8bn) European Union payment to Greece and other struggling countries could be reduced by at least half after some rich EU countries raised concerns about the impact on their own public finances.
Six EU countries – Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Latvia, Romania and Hungary – stand to receive the money as part of a European Commission plan to accelerate payments of EU subsidies to countries that have received international bail-outs during the crisis.
But a group led by net contributors to the EU budget, including France, Britain, the Netherlands and the Nordics, are questioning part of the scheme in a way that could “vastly reduce” the pay-out, according to diplomats involved in the talks. Their opposition would water down a valuable lifeline estimated as being worth €880m for Greece alone.
Concerns from some of the countries centre on lowering the amount of money that national governments have to put up to finance projects otherwise paid for with EU money.
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