In a vote on December 17 2009, the European Parliament approved an additional 75 million euro in compensation for Bulgaria for the closure of the country’s Kozloduy nuclear power station’s units 1 to 4.
 
The 2009 EU budget, but not the 2010 budget, includes pre-accession support to Bulgaria and Romania, with 209 million euro both in payments and commitments. This heading is included in the 2009 total.
 
The vote in the European Parliament means that it has approved a 122.9 bn euro EU budget for 2010, nearly half of which is to go to agriculture and natural resources.
 
This is a six per cent increase on the 2009 budget, which was worth 116 billion euro.
 
The EU 2010 budget provides for 141.4 billion euro in commitments and 122.9 billion euro in payments.
 
The main challenge for this year's budget was to find the funding for the already agreed but not yet financed economic recovery plan, which will cost the EU 2.4 billion euro next year, a European Parliament media statement said.
 
The 2010 budget is the last one agreed under the Nice Treaty rules. The payments figure represents 1.04 per cent of EU gross national income (GNI).
 
"If we want Europeans to feel more secure in 2010, we have to implement this budget cleverly", said rapporteur László Surján (EPP, HU) in the debate preceding the vote.
 
"This is why we are enhancing energy security, supporting the creation of jobs, introducing the microfinance facility. We support research and development and life-long learning. We want to help the milk sector and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change."
 
Surján  said that there was an urgent need for a proper review of the EU's long-term budget (the financial perspective), originally planned for this year but now postponed until next year: "We haven't got enough room for manoeuvre. There are headings where there are no reserves. Thus, a mid-term review of the multiannual budget plan is inevitable."
 
The five billion euro European economic recovery plan covers the years 2009 and 2010 and supports energy projects and broadband development in rural areas. When it was agreed earlier this year, the financing for the second year (2.4 billion euro) was not settled.
 
After the last month's negotiations, the EU institutions have agreed on how to finance it: by using unspent funds and margins (mainly for agriculture and administration) for 2009 and 2010, and by EU member states adding 120 million euro in fresh money. 
 
Among projects in Britain and Ireland set to receive EU financial support under the recovery plan will be electricity interconnections between Ireland and Wales, the development of offshore wind energy projects in the North Sea and carbon capture and storage projects in a number of locations in the UK.
 
The fresh money for the recovery plan, a figure of 300 million euro in emergency support for the dairy industry and the 75 million euro in funding to help decommission the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria were among points in the budget that were significantly influenced by the European Parliament.
 
MEPs also voted to back a series of pilot projects and preparatory actions, ranging from the recovery of obsolete fishing vessels to surveillance and protection for EU vessels sailing through areas where piracy is a threat.
 
This annual budget was the last to be negotiated under the Nice Treaty rules, under which Parliament had no formal power over agriculture expenditure and certain other areas. With the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament gains full powers over the EU budget.