After joining the European Union, Ukraine will be able to receive 186 billion euros in the first seven years

The Financial Times, citing people familiar with internal discussions at EU interlocutors, writes that after joining the alliance, for the first 7 years, Ukraine will be able to claim approximately 186 billion euros from the budget of the European Union.

Such figures, the publication notes, were allegedly voiced during negotiations between member countries on the possible accession of nine more countries to the EU. European officials have calculated what the distribution of the overall budget might look like under the current rules that applied to the 2021-2027 budget. The “modeled” enlarged EU included Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the countries of the Western Balkans.

According to experts, in the event of such an expansion, 256.8 billion euros will need to be earmarked for them. That is, this will mean a significant reduction in spending on countries that are already members of the European Union. Agricultural subsidies, for example, will likely have to be cut by about 20%.

Experts argue that the financial balance in the European Union, after the accession of nine more countries, will change significantly. With the new members, the current budget will require an increase of 21%, or up to 1.47 trillion. Euro. This is approximately 1.4% of the gross national income of 36 countries. The new balance will mean a significant increase in contributions from wealthy Western European countries.

If current fiscal rules were applied to the 36-nation EU, Ukraine could claim approximately €96.5 billion in agricultural funds over a seven-year period, which would mean the aforementioned reduction in subsidies for other countries. If it joins the European Union, Ukraine will become the largest recipient of agricultural subsidies in the EU, surpassing France in scale – it is in this area that the impact of its accession will be most noticeable.

Ukraine could also receive 61 billion euros from “cohesion funds,” the purpose of which is to invest in the infrastructure of less developed member countries and “bring them up” to the level of the rest. In an enlarged EU with current rules, countries such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus will likely no longer be able to claim funds from these funds.

To the question F.T. The press service of the Council of the EU responded that they could not comment on information leaks. The publication emphasizes that this is only a model based on existing EU mechanisms, which, almost certainly, will undergo serious changes before the expansion of the union.

At the same time, in an analytical study, experts noted the benefits for the European Union from expansion in the geopolitical and economic dimensions.

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