"What do a small bakery in the Charlottemburg district of Berlin, the professors of linguistics of the Stefan Institute in Slovenia and the Oriente railway station of Lisbon have in common? All have received funds from the EU budget. The most substantial part of the yearly budget of the EU is spent to the benefit of the people and community of all Europe". The website of the 25 member states (www.europa.eu.int) chose a simple language to explain the importance and the contents of the EU budget. And to shed light on the profit and loss accounts for 2006, they developed a multilingual brochure available in all the agencies and information points in the EU. The text suggests that the EU investments for this year amount to 121 billion euros, nearly one half of which 51 billion euros will be allocated to agriculture and rural development. 44 billion will be spent for structural plans, 9 for internal policies and 5 for foreign policies. In this way, the CAP (Common Agricultural policy) will take up 45.5% of the common resources, the structural plan will account for 31.6%, and much less will be used to subsidise the internal policies, the foreign and common safety policy and then the pay for the administrative costs (5.9%), which are essential to make the "EU machinery" work.
