Structural Funds
Problems for the Funds
- net contributors liable to lose willingness to pay
- current recipients want to maintain position (eastern Lander, Spain, Greece, Portugal, mezzogiorno, even rich Ireland)
- new members may have difficulty reaching cap of 4% of GDP
- if so, may look for simpler disbursement rules/lower co-financing
- if not, impact on structural funds could be 25Bn euros by 2013
- unanimity on structural funds so everyone - net contributors, current beneficiaries, new members - has a veto