A rebate quickie/roundup
Busy again today, so light/nonexistent blogging, I'm afraid. But I really ought to provide some info on the latest rebate spat.
As the rebate's based on regional spending, it fluctuates from year to year. It's currently worth about €5bn a year, but is expected to rise to €7bn. On those projections, Blair's current offer could see the amount Britain receives back drop by €1.5bn a year - in fact, still a net rise of €0.5bn, so not really that much of a concession. All he's really doing is refusing the offer of even MORE returned cash (which could be worth about €9bn to €10.5bn in the 2007-13 budget period if he took it up).
In other words, Blair's in a lose-lose situation again. UK critics will be able to accuse him of surrendering to the French, and giving away the one thing which keeps EU-sceptics moderately OK with the whole British contributions to the EU thing. Critics on the continent, meanwhile - doubtless led by France - will be able to point out that he's only giving up money on paper, not in reality, and that the rebate will continue to rise.
NOTE: All figures above taken from EU Politix.com - other estimates vary.
Some other views and more info:
The Financial Times reckons (and they know more about this kind of thing than me) that
"the move could mean that Britain has to make an additional net contribution to the EU budget of between £6bn and £7bn over the EU budget period from 2007 to 2013...The Guardian:
"British officials have long acknowledged that, without the concession over funding for eastern Europe, there can be no hope of achieving an EU budget deal.
"This is because failure to adjust the mechanism by which the rebate is calculated would leave Britain’s net contribution to the EU budget at 0.23 per cent of gross national income, while France’s contribution would stand at 0.4 per cent."
"The best [Blair] can now hope for in Brussels next month is agreement to a review of subsidies in 2008...The Times:"In a move to get a December deal, however, Jack Straw will accept on Monday that if the rebate is retained virtually intact the budget system will become gradually too favourable to Britain and by the end of the next budget period, 2013, this country will be the second-smallest net contributor after Cyprus."
"Downing Street knows it has to give ground because the enlargement of the EU means that the rebate will dramatically increase if no changes are made."
Prof Péter Balázs (in The Telegraph) - "the blame is on Britain and I am sorry for that, because the CAP is a much bigger problem than the British rebate"
Le Monde: "The initial British plans caused a flurry of negative reactions in the new Member States, which were - until now - allies of Great Britain because of its more liberal, Atlanticist positions."
Jean-Claude Juncker and Guy Verhofstadt, quoted in Le Figaro: "We are worried by the outline of the British project: it is far too tight a corset for the future of Europe"
Another quote from the same article from "an Eastern European Diplomat": "By lowering the budget in this way, the British buy the silence of the rich countries and turn to blackmail with the poorest countries... They are using divide and rule as in the good old days of colonialism: it is very shocking."
Finally, I unusually find myself agreeing almost entirely with soon to be ex-Tory leader Michael Howard, quoted by the BBC:
"We are not going to get fundamental reform of the EU budget in the last days that remain of the British presidency.
"We should have been talking about what we want the EU to do, about what the EU is for, and once you have decided what it should do and what it is for, then what it should cost and how you pay for its costs follow naturally from that decision.
"We never had the slightest attempt from the British government to take part in that debate or lead that debate and that's why we are in the mess that we are."
2 Comments:
Good explanation of a story I confess I haven't followed. Shame you missed the Sun's Tony Blair's big betrayal, which seems unhinged to me. And now they've called both candidates for the Tory leadership and Charles Kennedy of being traitors and accused Tony Blair of 'treachery' -- that's even-handedness of a sort.
I don't normally read the Sun -- I was looking for David Blunkett, which Justin covered anyway.
What Phony should have done is declare that the rebate is untouchable, and in fact needs to be increased. When challenged on this, just say that the rebate is as sacred as the CAP....
Basic SEP theory (Somebody Elses Problem) - make the problem Chirac.
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