The European Parliament agreed on the Commission's proposal to provide supplementary EU co‑financing to countries facing particular difficulties in managing public debt/deficit and ensuring financial stability. It is still needed the green light by the Council in order to adopt the proposal. The Member States which will benefit of this proposal are Romania, Latvia, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The Commission's proposal on the supplementary EU co‑financing to countries facing particular difficulties in managing public debt/deficit and ensuring financial stability was agreed by the European Parliament. The proposal was tabled as part of the package adopted on 1 August to increase the EU co‑financing in cohesion, fisheries and rural development policies for countries that have received financial assistance under the balance of payments support mechanism (Romania, Latvia and Hungary) or under the European Financial Stability Facility (Greece, Ireland and Portugal).

The measure, which does not represent new or additional funding for the six Member States in question, allow an earlier reimbursement of available funds under cohesion policy, rural development and fisheries. President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso highlighted that the adoption of the proposal is an important step on the path to European recovery. He also added that the measure is Europe's expression of solidarity with and support for Member States implementing painful economic adjustment programmes.

With the implementation of the measure, the EU investment in the countries most affected by the economic crisis can be increased by up to 10 percentage points, meaning that the EU could cover up to a maximum of 95% of programme costs, if requested by the Member States concerned. According to the Commission, the reduction of national match-funding for EU projects in theses countries at a crucial time of budgetary consolidation will make possible many growth-enhancing projects, such setting up business clusters or investing in transport infrastructure.