Press Release: New Member States grant more subsidies than old ones, but amount likely to fall

The Autumn 2004 update of the EU State Aid Scoreboard revealed that the ten Member States which had joined the EU in May 2004 spent more than the old ones in state subsidies to businesses as a percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP), but that that was likely to be corrected as they would overcome problems specific to their economies prior to accession. In absolute amounts, however, they granted an annual average of €6 billion in the four years 2000-2003 compared with €34 billion for the EU-15 in 2002.

European Commission: COM(2004) 750: 'State Aid Scorebaord. Autumn 2004 update'. http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/archive/2004_autumn_en.pdf

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