Can someone explain our EU payments?

[El Cid]

The press are very biased, so I cannot understand what is happening with our EU payments.

 

"While the UK rebate is to remain unchanged".

 

"Denmark, however, secured a £110million rebate demanded by its prime minister."

 

Yet the news story was positive for David Cameron. How are a countries payments to the EU worked out, and have they changed?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275435/Cameron-wins-historic-cut-EUs-spending-BUT-heres-bad-news-Thanks-Blair-Britain-end-paying-MORE.html

[L00b]

The press are very biased, so I cannot understand what is happening with our EU payments.

 

"While the UK rebate is to remain unchanged".

 

"Denmark, however, secured a £110million rebate demanded by its prime minister."

 

Yet the news story was positive for David Cameron. How are a countries payments to the EU worked out, and have they changed?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275435/Cameron-wins-historic-cut-EUs-spending-BUT-heres-bad-news-Thanks-Blair-Britain-end-paying-MORE.html

Are your quotes from that article (it is over 2 years old) or from a recent one (if so, link please)?

 

In a nutshell:

The EU has an annual budget.

EU Member States are asked to contribute that annual budget pro-rata.

Thatcher managed to get GB a rebate on its annual contribution in 1984.

Blair got suckered into surrendering some of it 20-odd years later.

Cameron held onto what was left of the rebate and got an EU budget cut in 2013 (meaning the pro rata contribution of every EU Member State, including GB, would be less than without the cut).

 

Clearer?

 

For general knowledge about the EU budget, see here.

For general knowledge about the UK rebate, see here.

Edited June 8, 2015 by L00b

[tzijlstra]

Edit: Didn't notice the 2 year gap lol! Good spot Loob.

 

Your point on DC: Funny how the article hails this as a victory for Cameron whereas it still required a majority of HoS to vote for it and he wasn't the one suggesting it (although no doubt he stood side by side with the real instigator, Merkel).

 

In reply to your question on payments, it is really complicated to explain El Cid because this is one area that is subject to continuous wringing and cajoling from all member-states, as it is the one area that requires negotiation and agreement it is the ideal tool to "politicise". The new budget isn't known in detail yet, but you can find the previous budgets, in detail, on the EU website.

 

What I think has happened here is that the rebate has been protected but the distribution of who pays what has been altered. Hollande always has a bad position at these negotiations by the way because France benefits enormously from the agricultural payments, a terrible construction that should have gone decades ago.

[L00b]

Hollande always has a bad position at these negotiations by the way because France benefits enormously from the agricultural payments

The way the CAP has been serially abused by French farmers over the decades (...in the semi-jokey way that Corsica really only counts 1,000 cows or so, but they're all free-roaming so each of the 100 or so Corsican livestock farmers owns 100 cows ) means Hollande and its predecessors should always know better than to open their trap about it (...like Hollande barefacedly dared to in 2013).

 

I seem to hazily recall an old (years and years old) story (again semi-jokey with a grain of truth) that some PAC-associated EU body or other had resorted to counting cows (or was it sheep) by satellite, so rampant and flagrant had the abuse gotten.

Edited June 8, 2015 by L00b

[geared]

How do they abuse it so bad and still get away with doing so??

[L00b]

How do they abuse it so bad and still get away with doing so??

They haven't had for a while, and generally don't these days.

 

I knew I'd heard about the EU (and national agencies of EU Member States) using drone/satellite imaging to curb the abuse.

[Alan Ladd]

How do they abuse it so bad and still get away with doing so??

 

Its politics, it keeps the French farmers quiet. It is, in effect, a bribe. Always has been.

 

It keeps the peace however. Therefore on balance, its been worth it. But it cannot go on, this is one of the reasons Cameron is right in seeking re negotiation of our situation.

[Chris_Sleeps]

Its politics, it keeps the French farmers quiet. It is, in effect, a bribe. Always has been.

Not just the French. The British didn't turn their noses up to EU subsidies.

(Source: Gaurdian)

(Source: New Statesman)

[Alan Ladd]

Not just the French. The British didn't turn their noses up to EU subsidies.

(Source: Gaurdian)

(Source: New Statesman)

 

 

Nor should we. I think the point is that the CAP seems unchangeable. I dont now of anything we have had out of the EU that has not lead to positive change. It seems that the French just want to maintain the status quo.

[apelike]

The EU payments can be summed up quite easily.

 

We pay the UE lots of money, then a great deal of that money is lost to bureaucracy, the setting up of organisations that do little, mega wages to people with lavish lifestyles, paying for lavish buildings and then after that some of what's left gets returned.