Government caves in (already) on EU £1.7bn payment demand

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...m-he-halved-it

UK to pay £1.7bn EU bill in full despite Osborne’s claim to have halved it

Chancellor says bill was cut to £850m but Treasury aides admit Britain is also returning its automatic rebate, making up the rest

George Osborne at the start of a European finance ministers meeting in Brussels. Photograph: Wiktor Dabkowski/DPA/Corbis

The government has accepted a £1.7bn top-up bill to the EU budget despite repeatedly denouncing its size as unacceptable.

George Osborne, the chancellor, has won a respite, however – avoiding a 1 December deadline and deferring the payment interest-free until next September, well after the general election.

Britain’s automatic rebate on its contributions to the EU budget was expected to knock €1bn off the demand for €2.1bn, leading the chancellor to brag that he had halved the payment.

“Instead of footing the bill, we’ve halved the bill,” he said following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels and talks with the European commission vice-president in charge of budgetary affairs, Kristalina Georgieva.

The chancellor asserted that a bill for £1.7bn was now one for £850m – to be paid by 1 September next year in two instalments, one by the deadline, the other in July.

While insisting that the invoice had been reduced, Treasury aides conceded that Britain will pay the £850m while also returning the rebate cheque to Brussels, meaning that the full £1.7bn will still be paid.

British officials argued that it had not been clear whether the UK would qualify for a rebate since Brussels dropped the bombshell bill. But that would have been unique since Britain’s gross contributions to the EU budget have automatically benefitted from the rebate since the 1980s.

Osborne’s claims that the bill had been halved were refuted by other participants in the meeting.

“The sum cannot be challenged. We said this and so did many others,” said the Austrian finance minister, Hans Jörg Schelling. Luis De Guindos, the Spanish finance minister, said the same.

Schelling said that the compromise had not involved any arguments about the amount owed, only about whether the debt payments could be delayed and paid in instalments without incurring interest. “This proposal is supported by Great Britain,” he said.

The row over the budget surcharges erupted a fortnight ago at an EU summit in Brussels when David Cameron was presented with the extra bill, based on more accurate calculations of how the UK economy has been performing since 1995.

Cameron turned apoplectic, denounced the commission in the strongest terms, vowed not to pay by the deadline and called the size of the bill unacceptable – a position repeated over the past two days at a north European summit in Helsinki. In Finland he warned that the demand had eroded British public support for the EU by 10% in two weeks.

The commission also came under attack for mismanaging the toxic issue and Georgieva admitted on Friday that the eurocrats had learned several lessons from the episode.

Friday’s agreement meant that the commission had to amend the regulation on the budget financing, which then has to go back to national governments and the European parliament and be finalised by 1 December to avoid interest payments being added to the outstanding bills.

I'm shocked. No, not that they've paid it as I said they would, but that they've ALREADY caved in despite the gloss they tried painting over it. You would've least of thought they'd wait until the 20th November but they couldn't even manage that. Have ever a group of weaker and pathetic politicians ever run Great Britain than this shower and the shower before them who have the NERVE to criticise this when they signed the agreement.

Here's a great interview with Conservative Daniel Hannan MEP via https://twitter.com/SkyNewsTonight/s...06358690394112

Well worth a watch.

Thoughts?

[RyRy]

Osbourne's spin will be seen right through by the press and they'll take them to the cleaners for it I'm sure. PMQs for David Cameron is sure to be a hell of a time, when he tries to explain that giving back money that we hadn't been given yet, means we're getting it for a cheaper amount.

[GommeInc]

Well this news is pointless. Who are they attempting to fool? Admittedly, the UK knew they were going to receive this bill months in advance so acting surprised was pretty stupid but nonetheless they're continuing to pretend to act surprised and digging themselves into a hole.

[James]

Can smeone please explain to em in simple terms why we even had to pay this bill?

[dbgtz]

Can smeone please explain to em in simple terms why we even had to pay this bill?

The way GDP is calculated has been changed to include what I'll call "under the table" things, such as drugs and prostitution. This meant the UK did relatively better and has to back pay back until a date a can't remember (1997?). At least that's what I've read. Some places just say it's just because the British economy is doing better than others but that's kind of a load of tosh.

[James]

The way GDP is calculated has been changed to include what I'll call "under the table" things, such as drugs and prostitution. This meant the UK did relatively better and has to back pay back until a date a can't remember (1997?). At least that's what I've read. Some places just say it's just because the British economy is doing better than others but that's kind of a load of tosh.

So we're paying a fine for doing better at battling drugs? what?

[dbgtz]

So we're paying a fine for doing better at battling drugs? what?

GDP basically (kind of) measures trade so it's including the money traded in what is basically the "black" market.

I'm rereading this and my god this is such a bad explanation lmao but hopefully you kind of get what I'm saying.

[James]

GDP basically (kind of) measures trade so it's including the money traded in what is basically the "black" market.

I'm rereading this and my god this is such a bad explanation lmao but hopefully you kind of get what I'm saying.

don't 100% understand, but it still helped, thanks