David
Sumberg MEP
Date: 10/05/2008
Anger as Britain’s EU payments ‘miscalculated’ by £1bn
North West MEP, David Sumberg is reacting with anger to revelations that Britain’s contribution to the EU Budget will spiral by an additional £1 bn, this year.
Figures disclosed in footnotes to Budget documents outline that in 2007-08, Britain’s net payment to the EU has risen from the original estimate of £3.3bn to £4.1bn. The figures also show that Britain will make even larger net payments to the EU in the coming years. In 2008-09, the net payment will be worth £6.1 billion. In 2009-10, it will be £6.4 billion.
The rises are the result of a 2005 agreement by Tony Blair, with Gordon Brown's backing, to a staged series of cuts in the rebate, which was won by the Conservatives in 1984.
Mr Sumberg said that Mr Brown is failing to defend British interests.
"These figures show how Britain is paying more and more to the EU while our taxes are going up and our public finances are in a mess," he said.
"We can now see just how damaging Gordon Brown's cave-in was when he gave away £7 billion of Britain's rebate in return for nothing at all."
Conservative calculations estimate that the £4.1 billion payment is the equivalent of £17 for every taxpayer, and enough to pay the salaries of more than 20,000 nurses, 5,000 doctors, or 20,000 soldiers.