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.

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.

"The amount that Member States were asked to pay to the EU budget in 2007 corresponded very closely to what was spent. This is good news" said Dalia Grybauskaitė, EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget. She added, "Effective forward planning, less red-tape and good budgetary management made it easier to get new programmes rolling faster in 2007, helping Member States direct EU cash to where agreed needs lie".

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.

Since EU rules set out that the EU budget must be balanced over the year, any extra cash is returned to Member States.