Budgetary cash flows in the EU and their impact on national budget liquidity: the case of Slovenia

On May 1, 2004 ten new states joined the EU. At the same time, budgetary cash flow mechanisms between the EU budget (as the central subject) and national budgets were established. Despite the fact that all the rules are clear and known in advance - stipulated by the EU directives and regulations - there are some uncertainties, which may have an important effect on the liquidity as well as on the budgetary cash flows in new member states. The greatest problem for the liquidity of new member states’ budgets is posed by the time lags between inflows and outflows of EU funds. These lags are mainly because of delayed payments from the EU budget and problems with some member state’s absorption capacity. This article deals with the dynamics and the scale of budgetary cash flows between the Slovenian budget and the EU budget until 2006. A couple of likely scenarios are presented, which could happen in case of delayed payments of European funds. Consequently, both an unexpected state budget liquidity deficit and an additional burden arising from interest on delayed payments to the Brussels are possible for Slovenia.