Press Release: Danuta Hübner: Record payments for cohesion policy in 2007

Cohesion policy budget execution for 2007 was excellent, Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, announced on 12 February, 2008. She presented details of Member States' record performance in making payments of over EUR 41 billion, against EUR 33 billion in 2006. New Member States are now approaching absorption rates close to those of the EU15, she added. As for the next generation of programmes, running from 2007 to 2013, most of these were adopted before the end of last year in the fastest-ever programming exercise to date.