The European Commission said on Friday that five of its member countries are going to receive billions of euros from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), paving the way for investing within these countries.
According to the Partnership Agreement the EU has adopted with the five countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will respectively obtain over 5 billion euros (6.79 billion U.S. dollars), 8 billion euros and 3 billion euros from those funds, while Slovakia will receive more than 15 billion euros, and Cyprus more than 900 million euros.
The EU has altogether 5 structural and investment funds, namely European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, European Maritime & Fisheries Fund.
Partnership Agreements between the European Commission and individual EU countries set out plans for national authorities on how to use funding from the ESIF between 2014 and 2020, by outlining each country's strategic goals and investment priorities. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollars)