Operating budgetary balances as a percentage of GNI (2012)

The European Commission notes that Member States with lower relative prosperity currently contribute to financing correction mechanisms, which results in a partial neutralisation of cohesion objectives. On the other hand, geographically pre-allocated resources play a role in increasing the focus on budgetary balances, but some analysts consider that overall the EU budget has rather modest redistributive effects, due to its size and capping. Still, for some countries, the EU budget may represent a significant source of resources for investment: for central and eastern European Member States, for example, the very rough indication given by operational budgetary balances shows positive annual surpluses, in most cases corresponding to between 2.14% and 4.84% of GNI in 2012.