These EU members could pay the highest price in case of EU enlargement

euronews (in English)

A Bruegel study quantified the budget cuts some EU countries could face if the bloc admitted all nine candidate states, with an overall net cost of around €26 billion a year for current members.

Transcript

00:00What would be the cost of EU enlargement for existing member states?

00:09There are currently nine states that are official candidates to join the EU.

00:15Think Tank Bruegel has estimated how the bloc's budget could be reshaped if they join in.

00:22One of the biggest changes would involve cohesion funding,

00:27which is the money that less developed regions in the EU receive to catch up with the richer ones.

00:34If those nine candidates do join the EU, most of the current least developed regions would

00:41no longer hold that status. They would be reclassified as transition regions,

00:47meaning they would receive less cohesion funding. Italy and Spain would experience

00:53the largest reductions, each losing nearly 9 billion euros, followed by Portugal,

01:00minus 4 billion euros, Hungary and Romania, minus 2 billion euros.

01:05The net cost of these nine candidates entering the bloc to current EU members would amount

01:12to around 26 billion euros per year. On the other hand, Bruegel stresses that a larger EU market

01:21would be an economic boost for existing members,

01:24particularly in terms of exports and foreign direct investments.

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