London hits back at Brussels, as budget wars get under way - Main contents
EUOBSERVER i / BRUSSELS - The UK has hit back at the European Commission in a public discussion over its EU i rebate. Meanwhile, the largest new EU members, the Visegrad countries, have formed a bloc for the upcoming budget talks.
In a statement using the same vocabulary as EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski i over the weekend, a Downing Street spokesman on Monday (6 September) said: "The UK abatement remains fully justified. It's a matter of fairness."
"Without the rebate, the UK's net contribution as a percentage of national income would be twice as big as France's, and one and a half times bigger than Germany's. This is because of expenditure distortions from policies such as the CAP [EU farm aid]."
The communique noted the UK would have paid €75 billion over 2007 to 2013 without its "abatement," compared to France's €46 billion and Germany's €74 billion. With the rebate, the UK is paying the least out of the three on €38 billion.
The message came after Mr Lewandowski told German media the rebate is "no longer justified" because farm spending is to go down. His spokesman later told Brussels-based journalists the commissioner is not quite saying the rebate should be "scrapped," however.
The British rebate was one of the main sticking points in EU budget negotiations under the UK presidency in 2005.
The then Prime Minister Tony Blair i agreed to cut the abatement by €11 billion on the grounds the EU must support its impoverished new members and that it will carry out a review of the Common Agricultural Policy before the 2014 to 2020 pot is divided out.
The largest of the countries which joined in 2004 - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - have in the meantime decided to tackle the new round of budget negotiations as a bloc under the so-called Visegrad Club banner.
Iveta Radicova i , the Prime Minister of Slovakia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the club, on 9 August wrote a letter in the name of the four capitals to commission President Jose Manuel Barroso i urging him to keep intact the Cohesion Policy, the EU budget's golden goose for poor post-Communist regions in eastern Europe.
"We are convinced that the European Commission in its proposals for a future architecture of EU cohesion policy will take due account of the views expressed by the Member States and their regions," the letter, seen by EUobserver, said.
The Visegrad countries' EU ambassadors have held monthly meetings in Brussels for at least the past year to co-ordinate policy. Visegrad leaders also meet regularly ahead of EU summits in a show of strength.
The development has annoyed French leader Nicolas Sarkozy i, who last November said it "could raise questions" on EU solidarity.
A Visegrad state ambassador pointed out to this website that, until 2014 when EU voting rules change, the four countries together have the same voting power as France and Germany, the traditional 'motor' of the EU.