The REAL winners and losers from the EU (and surprise – Britain gets a raw deal)
BRITAIN has coughed up an eye-watering 32 BILLION euros in net contributions to European Union coffers in the last five years, official figures show.
The sum is roughly equal to half UK defence budget, almost a quarter of the annual NHS bill, and a little under half Britain’s welfare budget.
Poland is by far the biggest recipient of EU cash, syphoning off a jaw-dropping 57.3 billion euros from Brussels coffers over a five-year period.
EXPRESS
Britain coughs up a fifth of the EU’s net budget, and the UK, Germany and France put in two-thirds
Between 2010 and 2014 taxpayers in Britain, France and Germany ploughed net contributions of 127.5 billion euros into the Brussels project, according to official figures from the European Commission.
But during the same time the Eastern European members of the club – some 10 former Communist countries – took out 134.5 billion euros in funding and subsidies.
The figures mean that German taxpayers effectively cough up to fund the lifestyles of people in neighbouring Poland, while Britain’s contribution is equivalent to what Spain and Portugal take out.
REUTERS
The revelations come after David Cameron’s pro-Remain camp took a pummelling in the polls
REUTERS
The Vote Leave camp say Britain should spend the money on the NHS instead
Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), has calculated the UK’s net contribution figure for 2015 at some £9.9 billion (12.7bn euros), meaning we are the second largest contributor behind only Germany.
Economist Mark Baimbridge, a senior lecturer at Bradford University, said: “The EU budget is structured so that the UK consistently contributes a greater proportion of finances than it receives in return, or than is warranted by national income.
“The four revenue mechanisms were biased against members, like the UK, whose historically higher-than-average consumption rates caused overpayment to the EU in comparison to the GDP per capita calculation.”
Justice Secretary Michael Gove has also raised fears that in future Britain’s rebate – currently worth around four billion euros a year – could be “eroded” by other member states, many of which like to see it scrapped.
The cut in our bill, secured by Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s to address the unfair proportion of the Brussels bill Britain was expected to foot, is not written into EU constitutions but it does require the unanimous agreement of all 28 states including the UK to alter it.
However there has been one previous alteration to the rebate in 2005, when then Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to give away 40 per cent of it in return for a pledge by Brussels bureaucrats to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which they swiftly reneged on.
The figures come at a time when spending on the European Union has become a key point of contention in the Brexit debate.
They say that Britain sends a gross figure of £350 million a week to the EU and that Ministers will be able to improve public services if we “take back control” of that money.
But Prime Minister David Cameron has argued that quitting the EU will place a “bomb” under the British economy, reducing tax receipts and so ultimately cutting the amount of money a future Government has to spend on British priorities.
Britons will vote on whether or not to sever ties with Brussels in an historic referendum on June 23.
Current opinion polls show the two sides of the argument are neck and neck, with the Brexit camp building up significant momentum over the last two weeks.