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novembro 17, 2004
Brown labels EU spending plans unrealistic and unacceptable
Fonte: The Times
Brown labels EU spending plans unrealistic and unacceptable
By Rory Watson
Chancellor will not give up Britain's £3.2 billion budget rebate
GORDON BROWN told the European Commission to put its finances in order yesterday while firmly rejecting moves to water down Britain’s multibillion pound budget rebate.
As EU finance ministers examined the union’s proposed spending plans for the next nine years, Mr Brown insisted that the 35 per cent increase the Commission is seeking in the €100 billion (£70 billion) annual budget was “unrealistic and unacceptable”.
“No finance minister here today could even put such an increase to his country and no parliament would expect such a finance minister to stay in the job if he did so,” he said.
The Chancellor’s criticism of the union’s long-term expenditure proposals coincided with the refusal, for the tenth year running, by the European Court of Auditors to sign off the EU’s annual accounts because it could not be certain the funds had been correctly spent. The financial watchdog also found that a €200 billion backlog had built up since the Commission has been unable to spend the money which was agreed in 1999 to be made available for infrastructure projects.
Mr Brown, who is prepared to see a 6.5 per cent rise in EU expenditure over the coming decade, argued that the backlog and the demand for more funds were at odds with the Commission’s strictures on the need for strong budgetary discipline. “It is ironic the Commission lectures member states on keeping budget deficits below 3 per cent and at the same time is coming here asking for a 35 per cent increase in expenditure,” he said.
Mr Brown made clear that the Government had no intention of giving up the budget rebate which Margaret Thatcher secured 20 years ago, now worth €4.6 billion annually.
“The rebate has been, is, and will remain fully justified. Britain has the lowest receipts of all member states, both per head of population and as a percentage of gross national income,” he said, pointing out that over the past two decades, the UK had made net payments to the EU of around €58 billion, second only to Germany.
However, the Government will come under increasing pressure over the rebate in the months ahead. Several other major net contributors, notably the Netherlands, are looking for similar compensation and the less well-off new EU members resent contributing to the UK refund. In their annual report, the auditors only gave a clean bill of health to EU administrative expenditure, or just 6 per cent of the annual budget. “This does not mean that 93 per cent of the budget is misspent, but that we cannot tell with reasonable confidence that there is no material level of error,” said one official.
Publicado por esta às novembro 17, 2004 01:56 PM