Leaders of states that joined the European Union in May 2004 have been shocked by the European Commission's call upon them to pay back around EUR 500 million into the EU's coffers because of the excess food stocks they accumulated prior to joining the community, Új Szó, a Hungarian daily in Slovakia reported.
The debated food products are garlic, rice, butter, orange juice, pork, tobacco, canned tangerine and fish. Hungary would have to repay EUR 200 million, while the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia would need to put EUR 46 million, 136 million, 30.39 million and 5 million into the budget of Brussels, respectively.
The agricultural ministers of Slovakia (Zsolt Simon), Hungary (József Gráf) and Poland (Józef Jerzy Pilarczyk) met in Bratislava with agricultural political state secretaries Miroslav Toman (Czech) and Franc But (Slovinia) on 19 August.
The said the decision of Brussels was unfair and stood without any legal justification. They called attention to the fact that at the 1995 enlargement of the EU, the union restricted the stocks of only two products in Austria and Sweden, namely olive oil and rice. They claim that the list of restricted products was extended by goods that had not been included in the countries' accession documents.
They denied that either of the counties had stocks of the mentioned goods beyond EU norms.
Gráf told Új Szó on Saturday that Budapest would not pay back a single euro on these grounds to the EU, adding that Hungary was prepared to turn to the European Court. His peers took a subtler stance, saying that that they would fight the Commission's decision in court only if they saw no other option.
Source: Portfolio online financial journal
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23.08.2005