The ten new members that joined the European Union in 2004 were able to use only a quarter of all European funds allocated between the accession and today. The worst fund users were Cypruss, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The total amount designed to push forward the new members was 21.5 billion euros, out of which the states’ absorption reached only 5.6 billions, some 26%.

„The money isn’t lost yet. The new members have the time they need to learn, but it’s not a lot of time we talk about”, says the European Budgets Commissioner, Dalia Grybaskaite, fearing that the slow improvement this year won’t be enough for the even more significant funds in 2007.