Britain's net contribution to EU to cost 60% more from 2010/2011

[Godfather77]

Place in EU 'to cost UK 60% more'
Monday, 24 August 2009
Full article:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8219344.stm

The UK's net contribution to the European Union will rise by almost 60% next year, the Treasury has said.

The cost of membership will be £6.4bn - the equivalent of about £260 for every household in the UK. In 2004, the total bill was £4.1bn - £53 per household. The Treasury said it was right for the UK "to share the burden of membership with new accession countries".  

A spokesman for the Treasury said the increase had been fully and openly discussed in Parliament.

"The prime minister has made clear our belief is that it is right for us to share the burden of membership of the European Union with the new accession countries so that every part of the European Union can look forward to prosperity in the future," he added.

In 1984, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher secured a refund - or rebate - for the UK on a part of its contribution to the EU budget. It was worth about £3bn a year and was designed to make up for difference between what the UK paid in and what it got back.

The main reason for this discrepancy was that the UK had relatively few farms, so it got a small share of farm subsidies, which at the time made up 70% of budget expenditure.

But in 2005, under pressure from new, poorer EU member states from Eastern Europe, Tony Blair renegotiated the rebate - resulting in it being cut by about 20%. That was the equivalent of about £7bn between 2007 and 2013.

The Conservatives say this latest increase in the UK's contribution proves that successive Labour governments have given away far too much to Europe.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond said: "The consequences of Labour's rebate sell-out are becoming clear."

"Gordon Brown and Tony Blair signed billions of pounds of our money away."

"At a time when our economy is in recession and public service budgets are under pressure, Labour's incompetence is allowing billions of pounds to be siphoned off to Brussels."

[Godfather77]

UK's payments to EU jump by 60 per cent
22 Aug 2009
Full article:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6073804/UKs-payments-to-EU-jump-by-60-per-cent.html

The Treasury statistics show that the UK's net contribution to the EU will increase from £4.1 billion this year to £6.4 billion in 2010/11. The figures were published in the Treasury's annual Community Finances statement, which was slipped out last month just before parliament broke up for its summer recess.

The revelation will fuel the political debate over whether Britain benefits from being in the EU, after more than a quarter of UK voters in this year's European elections backed parties which want to take Britain out of the EU.

It comes six weeks before Irish voters go to the polls in a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, in which a "yes" vote would put the controversial treaty – which transfers national powers to Brussels and creates a powerful new EU president – on course to become law in all 27 member states.

The latest Treasury figures also show that Britain is currently the second biggest net contributor, behind Germany. The new net UK contribution of £6.4 billion is the equivalent of £257 for every household in Britain – or 3p on the standard rate of income tax.

Britain's EU rebate was designed to compensate the UK for the high costs of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which benefits Britain much less than other countries because of its relatively small farming sector.

Before the last big round of EU negotiations, Mr Blair promised parliament that the "UK rebate will remain and we will not negotiate it away." However, at the European Council in December 2005 Mr Blair negotiated away around 20 per cent – or £7.2 billion – of the rebate Britain would have received over the period 2007 to 2013.

As part of the "deal", Britain received promises of cuts to the CAP subsidies paid to farmers. However, these have not so far been forthcoming, with the French government digging in its heels over plans to reform the CAP.

After Germany and the UK, the biggest net contributors to the EU budget are the Netherlands, France and Italy. The biggest net beneficiaries are Greece, Poland and Spain.