Bailed-out European countries set to receive more EU regional aid

Dec 12, 2011, 16:08 GMT

Brussels - European Union members at the receiving end of an international bailout programme should be able to tap more deeply into a separate bloc fund for infrastructure and environmental projects, EU governments agreed on Monday.

EU countries receive billions in aid from Brussels - mainly to upgrade infrastructural and environmental standards. But projects have to be cofinanced by national governments, a requirement which cash-strapped administrations may be hard-pressed to fulfil.

EU transport ministers - endorsing previous European Parliament decisions - therefore agreed that the EU's share of the cost could rise by 10 percentage points in countries running under bailout programmes.

This means the EU could pay up to 60 - rather than 50 - per cent of projects in Ireland, and up to 95 - rather than 85 - per cent of bills in Greece, Portugal and non-euro members Hungary, Latvia and Romania, which are also drawing EU and International Monetary Fund loans.

The concession will be applied retroactively to projects running from January 1, 2010, and will expire at the end of 2013, the EU Council, the secretariat of the bloc's governments, said in a statement.

It also stressed that, while more EU money may be funnelled into individual projects, overall regional aid ceilings earmarked for each EU member state will not change.

'The new support measures do not increase the total appropriations for the affected countries. This means that the top-ups do not lead to additional EU funding,' the EU council indicated.