A billion euros of agricultural subsidies earmarked for this year were not used. On 7 October 2008 the Development Committee of the EU Parliament endorsed the EU Commission’s proposal to donate this money to help overcome the food crisis in developing countries. The Development Committee envisages that 35 priority countries should benefit from the billion euros, with 750 million being spent this year and the remaining 250 million in 2009. The final decision will be taken at the budgetary conciliation meeting on 21 November. As a rule unclaimed EU funds are paid back to the member states.