European Parliament
Goebbels (PSE ).
(FR)
Mr President, I shall now present the third part of my explanation of vote.
According to the Kok report, the cost of enlargement could increase from 0.03% of the Union’s GDP in 2003 to 0.23% in 2013. That would still be very little. It should be borne in mind for example that over the last dozen years or so Germany has been devoting some 3% of its GDP to the new Länder to facilitate their structural adjustment. The Member States see themselves as net contributors. They will most certainly not agree to increasing the Union’s budget. In any case, the latter has a fixed ceiling of 1.27% of Community GDP. Consequently any future increase in structural aid to the new countries would have to be at the expense of current Union policies.

