EU rebate. Blair opens his cheeks and takes one.
Discussion
I may be wrong, but listening to the radio 4 item about this today, I got the impression that whatever Blair has done will cost us an extra 4 billion. Most of which will probably go to some Frog farmers so they can afford to take weeks off to do fuel protests (and feck up my holiday, b@stards)
ing traitor.The rebate is not a holy grail. It is only necessary so long as the rest of the budget screws the UK. If the budget is up for negotiation then the structure of the rebate ought to be up for negotiation too. The bottom line is that the UK is likely to need to maintain a substantial rebate of some kind for as long as France and Germany continue to receive disproportionately more EU funding than the UK does.
Where Blair appears to have dropped a bollock is to allow several EU members to pretend that the problem with the EU budget is only the UK's refusal to yield on its rebate, hence all the "Sherrif of Nottingham" piffle. The thing is, that line of argument is incredibly flimsy. I do wonder if by not rebutting it now, the UK is intentionally allowing the protesting governments to back themselves into a corner. The more confidently they blame the UK now, the weaker their position will be when their argument is demonstrated to be bollox ... which isn't hard; all you have to do is see which governments are currently looking to cap the total EU budget, then compare budget proposals based on per capita GDP and per capita EU spend btwn the major contributors.
Bottom line is that the major contributors will not allow the total EU budget to grow substantially. The UK rebate is peanuts compared to the hole in EU finances, so it is a red herring at best. The UK rebate in the current budget is also demonstrably fair as without it we would be substantially greater contributors to the EU budget than France.
If the EU wants to spend more money in the East and it won't get a bigger total budget, then it must cut spending in the West. That means CAP reform. Publicly France wants to cap the EU budget, spend more in the East, yet won't allow CAP to be touched. That position is an absolute nonesense.
Where Blair appears to have dropped a bollock is to allow several EU members to pretend that the problem with the EU budget is only the UK's refusal to yield on its rebate, hence all the "Sherrif of Nottingham" piffle. The thing is, that line of argument is incredibly flimsy. I do wonder if by not rebutting it now, the UK is intentionally allowing the protesting governments to back themselves into a corner. The more confidently they blame the UK now, the weaker their position will be when their argument is demonstrated to be bollox ... which isn't hard; all you have to do is see which governments are currently looking to cap the total EU budget, then compare budget proposals based on per capita GDP and per capita EU spend btwn the major contributors.
Bottom line is that the major contributors will not allow the total EU budget to grow substantially. The UK rebate is peanuts compared to the hole in EU finances, so it is a red herring at best. The UK rebate in the current budget is also demonstrably fair as without it we would be substantially greater contributors to the EU budget than France.
If the EU wants to spend more money in the East and it won't get a bigger total budget, then it must cut spending in the West. That means CAP reform. Publicly France wants to cap the EU budget, spend more in the East, yet won't allow CAP to be touched. That position is an absolute nonesense.
ATG said:
The rebate is not a holy grail. It is only necessary so long as the rest of the budget screws the UK. If the budget is up for negotiation then the structure of the rebate ought to be up for negotiation too. The bottom line is that the UK is likely to need to maintain a substantial rebate of some kind for as long as France and Germany continue to receive disproportionately more EU funding than the UK does.
ATG said:Thanks for stating the blatantly obvious.
The rebate is not a holy grail. It is only necessary so long as the rest of the budget screws the UK. If the budget is up for negotiation then the structure of the rebate ought to be up for negotiation too. The bottom line is that the UK is likely to need to maintain a substantial rebate of some kind for as long as France and Germany continue to receive disproportionately more EU funding than the UK does.
ATG said:From the BBC website:
Glad you accept the obvious. What's you beef then? Given that he has made it clear that we'd only accept a reduction in the rebate on the basis of reform of agricultural subsidies, what's the problem?
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: "There's a danger of getting the worst of all possible worlds - Britain gives up £1bn a year, the Eastern European countries get less money and there is no agreement to reform agriculture."
That's my beef with it dawg.
>> Edited by CupraR on Friday 2nd December 14:10
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