Here’s a few EU facts and figures for you to casually drop in during conversations, anywhere, on the doorstep, in the pub, chatting to neighbours. They’re all solid facts, indisputable, supporting UKIP’s case for us to be elected so we can run our own country, not hand it over to a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels.
- In calendar year 2012 the UK Gross Contribution hit a new record of £ 20.01bn, equivalent to £55 million every day. The UK Net Contribution was £12.2bn.
- 100% of Britain’s economy is subject to the EU’s regulatory burdens and costs, but less than 15% of GDP relates to trade with the EU.
- The EU’s accounts have not been signed off by the European Court of Auditors for 19 years in a row.
- Germany exported almost half a million (474,000) more cars to the UK in 2011 than she imported from the UK, exporting 3.7 times as many cars to the UK than she imported from the UK. It’s not in Germany’s interest to see tariff’s go up on German cars when we leave the EU – there will be a free trade deal.
- In September 2013 the overall trade in goods balance with the EU reached a record deficit of £6.0 billion. They sell so much more to us than we do to them.
- Professor Tim Congdon has calculated in his 2013 Costs of the EU to be 11% of GDP, roughly £170bn to the whole economy. This includes:
- Direct Fiscal cost of the EU 1.25% of GDP.
- Cost of Regulation 5.5% of GDP.
- Cost of misallocating EU resources/grants etc 3.25% of GDP.
- The EU spends £2bn on advertising, more than Coca Cola did in 2008.
- The EU lost £1.2bn of foreign aid last year
- The Common Fisheries Policy has cost the UK economy £2.8bn. In 1970, there were 21,443 fishermen in the UK, about one in seven working part time. As of 2008, there were 12,700.
- The EU Large Combustion Plant Directive is forcing the closure of a third of our coal and oil fired power stations in 2015.
- The Government admits its policies (and the EU) add 14% to energy bills.
- MEPs earn 740% more than the average EU citizen. In the UK it’s 695% more.
- Baroness Ashton’s EU External Action Service was set up with a £5.8m budget, employing over 7,000 people.
Scroll down to box 6, and see how one of the EUSSR’s proposals to stop the Euro collapsing, is to blatantly steal 10% of everyone’s savings, and that the element of surprise is essential for the success of a capital levy.
Move your money people, you have been warned.
http://tinyurl.com/oll6v7m
The real cost is far worse than people can imagine.
The Extent of EU Law
There are 3 types of EU Law formulated and proposed in the
European Commission, ECJ and ECHR
1/ Regulations are directly applicable in the UK. They do
not need to be approved by national parliaments. They are law as soon as they
are published.
2/ Directives are still binding on all EU countries, but are
more general, leaving the national institutions to develop the precise wording
to suit national conditions. They must go through parliament, however they must
be enacted according to a strict timetable.
3/ Decisions do not require the approval of national
parliaments. They refer to specific cases and require the relevant party, a
national authority and even an individual to do something or cease doing
something.
Most areas of national life are now effected by EU law. In
most years across the EU the majority of laws and statutory instruments now
come from Brussels. There are over 100,000 EU rules, international agreements
and legal acts binding on, or effecting citizens across the EU. In 2013 there
were in force :-
8,937 EU Regulations
1,953 EU Directives
15,561 decisions
2,948 other legal acts
4,733 international agreements
4,843 non-binding legal acts, which may however bind if agreed
52,000 agreed EU international standards from CEN, Cenelec,
Etsi etc and
11,961 verdicts from the EU Court of Justice
This complete body of EU law is known as the Aquis
Communitaire. It has more than 170,000 pages of active legislation which is in
force.
Judge Bruce Morgan said in his summing up of the Metric
martyrs case in Sunderland on 9 April 2001.
“This country quite voluntarily surrendered the once
seemingly immortal concept of parliament and legislative freedom by membership
of the European Union…as a once sovereign power, we have said we are bound by Community
law.”
Useful facts – thanks
Well done. We need more of this type of information. It will prove to be of great use. .
The EU EEAS setup costs are wrong. It’s an eyewatering £5.7Billion. I didn’t think 5.7million would go far. It would barely provide for an emperors tea party, let alone setting up her European Army and diplomatic service
That picture with the EU flags looks like the front of Claridges, our most prestigious hotel. But as the general manager is a German what else can we expect. It’s not as though we get a lot of royalty there from the EU.
I don’t think it’s my PC/display: this post needs formatting, only the first portion of each line visible…
Should be fixed now.