In 2007, Member States' contributions to the European Union budget almost exactly matched the agreed spending for the year so that there was the smallest EU budget surplus ever with a 90% drop from 2000 and a steady 17% decrease from 2006.

These figures precede and will help parliament in reaching their goals for the 2009 budget priorities. The continued downward trend reflects the European Commission's efforts to ensure Member States' payments to EU coffers are limited to what is strictly necessary. The end-of-year surplus - the difference between all EU budget revenue and spending - amounted to only just over 1% (€1,529 million) of the total €113,846 billion agreed spending for 2007.

Thanks to the financial management reforms introduced over the past years, budget surpluses have fallen dramatically since their peak in 2001. Crucial to the level of the surplus is the implementation of voted budget payments as they make up most of the EU's spending. And even though the year 2007 - like 2000 - was the first year of a new Financial Framework, the implementation rate of payments still reached 99%, contributing, among other things, to a record low surplus.

Surplus returned to Member States.

Since EU rules set out that the EU budget must be balanced over the year, any extra cash is returned to Member States.  Some members included in recent calculations include:

• Spain  were returned 131 meuros.
• Germany were returned the highest figure at 300 meuros.
• The EU to newest members also received a return, Bulgaria 4 meuros and 16 meuros

Amounts are calculated on the basis of each country's Gross National Income (GNI).