Officials from the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in Brussels on Tuesday that Greece received more money from its EU membership than any other country in 2008.

Greece took in almost 6.3 billion euros ($9.25 billion) more from the EU's budget than it paid into it in 2008, according to the commission.

The bulk of that money came in payments to Greek farmers and in EU funding for infrastructure projects such as highways and ports.

Greece was far ahead of EU newcomer Poland in the EU's net handouts list. Poland's net income from the EU's budget actually fell by some three-quarters of a billion euros to 4.4 billion euros last year. The drop owed largely to a reduction in EU payments to Polish farmers.

Observers say this is likely to provoke heated comments from Warsaw, which has frequently accused the EU of treating the countries that joined in 2004 and 2007 less generously than older member states.

German payments hit historic highs

At the other end of the scale, Germany, the EU's biggest member, paid almost 8.8 billion euros more into the budget than it received.

This marks the biggest contribution by the country in the last 10 years. Germany's payment amounts to more than double that of the next biggest contributors, Italy and France, which paid around a net 4 billion euros to the fund each.

The three countries are, however, far ahead of the EU's other heavyweight, Britain, whose net contribution fell from over 4 billion euros in 2007 to under 1 billion euros in 2008.

In terms of absolute receipts, France maintained its position as the largest recipient of EU funds, ahead of Spain, Germany and Italy. Britain, the EU's third-largest economy, was only the seventh-largest recipient of funding.

The news comes as the the European Commission is drawing up plans to reform the bloc's budgetary process in a move that analysts say will likely spark a rancorous debate between countries which receive the most money from the bloc and those who pay the most into it.

rb/dpa/Reuters

Editor: Rick Demarest