A big slice of EU foreign aid goes to future members. In 2005, recipients of pre-accession aid include Bulgaria and Romania (1.3bn euros), Turkey (323m euros) and Croatia (105m).
A sum of 120m euros has been earmarked for the Turkish Cypriot community.
The EU is now the world's largest aid donor, counting individual donations by member states. From the EU budget, more than 1.5bn euros is available to spend on development and humanitarian aid. Some 200m euros will go towards reconstruction in Iraq in 2005.
A total of 3.1bn euros will fund co-operation programmes with countries in the Middle East and Mediterranean, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and developing countries in Asia and Latin America.
There is a funding strategy for each region. For example, in the Western Balkans the emphasis is on improving governance and fighting organised crime.
The Common Foreign and Security Policy budget funds, among other things, police missions in Bosnia and Hercegovina and in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
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