The payment date for the extra money, amounting to £1.7billion comes on 1st December just days after the important by-election in Rochester. The EU say that they want the increased contribution because Britain’s economy is doing better than other EU countries. France will get back £790million as its economy performed less well. Germany, surprisingly, also gets £614million back. This represents a 20% increase to the EU from the UK.
A senior EU source told the Daily Telegraph that the scope for a legal challenge was non-existent.:
“This at the commission’s discretion. It is automatic, there is nothing Britain can do about it,” said the official.
The payment, or “surcharge”, follows a change to the way the EU calculates gross national income which now includes previous hidden service industries, including such as prostitution and illegal drugs.
Nigel Farage said:
“Every single strategy the Prime Ministers has adopted on the EU has failed. He now has two choices: to hold a referendum before the next general election or to lose the election. He could possibly lose the leadership before that as the discontent is growing.”
Douglas Carswell also said:
‘David Cameron’s Europe policy is literally incredible. We cannot believe him. Not since Ted Heath have we had such a bad deal for Britain.’
The principle which is at work here is that if a EU country’s economy improves, then instead of that country being allowed to use it for its education, health, or defence budgets, the EU gets first call in the extra money. In other words, the EU now can have priority over all future economic gains.
David Cameron today was said to be ‘visibly furious’ as he hit out at the surprise £1.7billion EU bill, and spoke of anger at:
“…appalling’ way Britain has been treated by European Commission…I’m not paying that bill on December 1. It is not going to happen…” Telegraph.
Apparently, the Treasury may have known about this for some weeks before. If they did not know then this must be regarded as a calculated ambush by the EU, possibly in response to Cameron’s recent failure to support the principle of open-doors immigration in the EU. One outcome may be that there is a compromise or a delayed payment arranged to save face for Cameron, involving concessions elsewhere in less public areas, but still requiring ultimate payout.
The big question which must be asked of the Chancellor George Osborne, is where will the £1.7billion due by 1st December come from? Which budgets will be cut, or which taxes will rise to pay for it?
We are continually being told by Labour that the Coalition is not spending enough on education, health, welfare, and a whole coterie of other financial holes. Yet they must now feel dismayed and possibly a little betrayed that their EU ‘friends’ arbitrarily see fit to deprive our social services of a whole chunk of funding.
To sum up the main points:
- UK contribution to the EU up 20% to £66million a day
- The £1.7billion extra to be paid on December 1st this year
- France and Germany to get rebates
- Greece must pay an extra £70 million
- Italy, in big economic trouble, must pay £268 million extra, even as the EU demands spending and borrowing cuts
- This move establishes the principle that the EU has first call priority over any national gain in income
- It is not clear whether the Treasury knew about this or was even aware of the effect of the changed EU formula
- The new rules calculate back to 1995 and now take into account prostitution and drug economies
- It comes on top of Tony Blair’s reduction in the UK rebate which has already lost us £10.4billion
- Cameron apparently only found out about the bill on Thursday this week
- Cameron may bluff, bluster, and posture, but only until the Rochester and Strood by-election is over
This will only strengthen the resolve of Eurosceptic MP’s in the other parties and make it harder for Cameron to push the line that he can control EU spending and reform the EU.
Why not ask your local Member of Parliament if they support the EU asking Cameron for a “1.7 Billion GBP budget increase” for their (again) unaudited Accounts?
I’ll bet you a Pound to a pinch of Ed Balls next Budget Forecast, that they don’t give you a direct answer!
More “blood and treasure” going to our EU friends. In the centenary of WW1 when will we ever learn?
This figure does not include the additional £600 million out of ‘own resources’ that we had to pay in July when the EU ran out of money.
Looks like the disaster ‘new look’ still remains. Compared to the older look- where one could easily see on the right hand side of the page the new post additions, the ‘new look’ is a train wreck.
I used to go on this site once or twice a day. I now look at it about once a week, as a game of ‘try to find the latest posts’ amongst the chaff.
Classic case of ‘new an improved’ = spoiled what was good about it in the first place.
You’ll probably find it’s some web designer associated with the site/or someone who ‘thinks’ they have a bit of computer savvy, being too stubborn to admit his/her latest incarnation is a disaster.
Pity
Of course we don’t have the money available to give to the EU because we are running a structural deficit of around £90B per annum. Last month the Chancellor had to borrow over £1b more than previous months because the tax revenues are falling. So we will have to borrow the money from the IMF and pay it to the EU to give to France & Germany. Totally ludicrous. Nigel Farage must think it is his birthday.
what makes it Questionable to me has i remember when Blair was finished. Germany boasted 90%of there trade was coming here also France boasted 80%too,the also won the large flag for olympic games .Germany won build trains contract worth billions derby got the 8 one a smaller contract for trains When Cameron came to power
I despair, What have we left for our children and grand children
Try not to despair; we are in a period of exciting transition during which a growing number of people are shedding their blinkers and realising the extent of the damage done to us by our 40 years embroilment in the dictatorship known as the EU. The EU helps in this process of enlightenment by making unreasonable demands, mocking the British people for its dislike of being taken for a ride, and trying to tell us how and what we should think. Every period has its history, but we are now in the midst of epoch-making events that will ensure a better, EU-free future for our children and grandchildren.