Bruno Waterfield
Brussels has demanded that British taxpayers stump up more than £682million in extra contributions to the European Union next year to meet a proposed £5.5billion increase in spending that has defied David Cameron’s repeated calls for austerity.
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| Last April, Mr Cameron rejected an EU demand for a six per cent increase in contributions |
The European Commission will today ignore pleas from the Prime Minister, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy for the EU to reduce expenditure in line with painful national cuts to public spending.
Instead of a freeze, or a cut, the EU will later today issue a request for an extra 4.9 per cent (£5.5 billion) in spending for 2012 to swell the Brussels budget to £117billion despite the austerity measures being imposed by member states domestically.
”We have opted for investing in areas that contribute to economic growth and development: the EU budget is an anti-crisis package,” said a senior official.
The new demand for additional cash will be seen as a declaration of war against Downing Street which last year signed the German Chancellor and French President up to a pledge for an EU spending freeze.
The government is under pressure to cut soaring British contributions to the EU budget after the publication of official figures last month. These showed that British taxpayers paid a total of £5.3billion to the EU in 2009 which increased to £9.2billion in 2010. The proposed £600 million increase for 2012 will mean British taxpayers will be paying more than £10 billion to the EU, at a time when the British government is making cuts.
Last April, Mr Cameron rejected an EU demand for a six per cent increase and called for a zero per cent EU budget freeze.
He lost a close vote over his austerity demand last July but then teamed up with Germany and France to limit the 2011 EU budget increase to a 2.9 per cent increase.
In December, Mr Cameron signed up the German Chancellor and French President to a statement vowing to cut EU spending in 2012 with reductions “stepped up progressively” until the Brussels budget stops growing altogether within two years.
Anger is growing among national governments over the rocketing costs of the EU, especially with the creation of the new institutions, such as the new EU foreign service, after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force last year.
The Commission has explained some of latest increase by insisting that bills for regional projects across Europe are coming into Brussels as the EU budgetary period of 2007 to 2013 draws to a close.
”Some ask why we would increase the EU budget when Member States face severe austerity measures at home,” said the senior official.
”This is a legitimate question. The main reason for the increase is that we must pay the bills coming from projects from across Europe.”
Last year, European auditors asked the Commission to recover “at least” £595million “that should not have been paid to the regional projects - ranging from road building to training the unemployed.
Audits of EU funded projects for 2009 found “quantifiable errors” affecting £9.5billion of spending, with “non-respect of public procurement rules” calling into question contracts worth £4billion.
Nine out of 10 audited road building projects across the EU were identified as proceeding with “unlawful use of award criteria” despite the breach of rules being detected before contracts were paid.
He lost a close vote over his austerity demand last July but then teamed up with Germany and France to limit the 2011 EU budget increase to a 2.9 per cent increase.
In December, Mr Cameron signed up the German Chancellor and French President to a statement vowing to cut EU spending in 2012 with reductions “stepped up progressively” until the Brussels budget stops growing altogether within two years.
Anger is growing among national governments over the rocketing costs of the EU, especially with the creation of the new institutions, such as the new EU foreign service, after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force last year.
The Commission has explained some of latest increase by insisting that bills for regional projects across Europe are coming into Brussels as the EU budgetary period of 2007 to 2013 draws to a close.
”Some ask why we would increase the EU budget when Member States face severe austerity measures at home,” said the senior official.
”This is a legitimate question. The main reason for the increase is that we must pay the bills coming from projects from across Europe.”
Last year, European auditors asked the Commission to recover “at least” £595million “that should not have been paid to the regional projects - ranging from road building to training the unemployed.
Audits of EU funded projects for 2009 found “quantifiable errors” affecting £9.5billion of spending, with “non-respect of public procurement rules” calling into question contracts worth £4billion.
Nine out of 10 audited road building projects across the EU were identified as proceeding with “unlawful use of award criteria” despite the breach of rules being detected before contracts were paid.
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