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| Subject: Britain would scarcely notice loosing EU funding and its economy is almost entirely disengaged from the EUs budget! | |
Author: Matt(UK) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 22:45:07 11/27/04 Sat Britain receives less money in subsidies from Brussels than any other country in the European Union in proportion to gross domestic product, according to data released by the European Commission yesterday (7/9/04) 08-09-2004 Britain receives less money in subsidies from Brussels than any other country in the European Union in proportion to gross domestic product, according to data released by the European Commission yesterday. Britain came bottom of the list of the EU's former 15 states in 2003, netting just 0.36pc of GDP. While the UK is compensated to some degree by the annual rebate - secured by Margaret Thatcher in a famous bout of "hand-bagging" in 1984 - the figures reveal that the British economy is almost totally disengaged from the EU budget. Unlike other countries tightly enmeshed in the EU payments system, Britain would scarcely notice if Brussels funding was cut off tomorrow. Portugal topped the list with payments of 3.64pc of GDP, followed by Greece 3.18, Ireland 2.38 (now the EU's second-richest country per capita) and Spain 2.19. Almost two decades after joining, Spain was still receiving 20.4pc of the EU's entire ˆ90billion budget, split evenly between farm payments and regional aid for the poorer provinces. France was second with 16.9pc of the total, almost entirely in transfers to its militant farm lobby. Britain received just 7.8pc of the funds. The Commission claimed yesterday that Britain's net payments in 2003 were just ˆ1.8billion after the taking into account a rebate of ˆ5.19 billion. But British officials say the figures are massaged to disguise the full scale of British contributions, insisting that net payments in 2003 were in fact closer to ˆ3.8billion. They accuse Brussels of deliberately leaving out a whole set of extra payments that boost the overall burden on British taxpayers. These include Customs duties from ships and aircraft using British ports. "Every time a ship docks or a plane lands in Britain, we pay duty to Brussels. For whatever reason, they like to bury it," said one official. "Even so, UK's net contribution is so massive that the Commission can't disguise it whichever figures they use," he said. If the data was presented honestly, Britain's net payments per capita would be about the same as Sweden and Germany (after including the rebate) but below those of the Netherlands, the country with the biggest genuine grievance of any EU state. All of them have signed a joint letter demanding that the Commission limit its budget to just 1pc of the EU's overall GDP. Michaele Schreyer, the German budget commissioner, said yesterday that the EU was cheap at the price. Earlier this summer she demanded an end to the UK rebate, saying British taxpayers should pay most towards the EU's trillion euro budget. Britain is now deemed to be the richest of the EU's big states, with per capita income of 108pc of the EU average in 2003. Europe admits Britain gets smallest subsidies By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 08/09/2004) [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 00:59:46 11/28/04 Sun I don't think that this is new to any British Eurosceptics, but it is a significant step in our favour if even the blasted EC has started to admit the chronic iniquity of it all. I would be quite amused, in a way, by the absurd comments of that German politician, about how Britain is only bankrolling the EC up to a certain extent, and should now take on the role fully, were it not for the fact that, where Europe is concerned, the worst usually happens for us. I advise emailing this article to every British person whose email address you happen to have - and to any Europeans, too, for that matter! [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |