27/09/2013
It was last May when, metaphorically, we
put to bed the first installment of the â¬11.2 billion additional payment for the 2013 EU budget, comprising an extra â¬7.3 billion, as set out in
Draft amending budget No 2.
"We have not heard the last of this", we warned in the closing words of our report, having already forecast that a second tranche of â¬3.9 billion would be required, with an agreement expected after the summer break.
Well, it's after the summer break so here we are, as predicted, facing up to the prospect of paying the EU another £400 million or so, bringing to about £1.2 billion the additional sums the UK is having to pay towards the current year's EU budget.
After Mr Cameron had put his foot down earlier the previous year, and had refused to pay any increase on the budget, the amendment budget represented a humiliating climb-down for the British prime minister. Predictably, therefore, we are going through the ritual of opposition, with the UK government
saying it objects to the extra sum. The
Mail in particular, is doing its fair share of
huffing and puffing.
In fact, though, huffing and puffing is all it is. EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski is quite blunt about needing the money. There is a budget gap and the Commission has bills to pay, which it cannot carry forward. The Member States are going to have to pay up.
"Time and again in the past few years I have warned that the voted EU budgets are well below the legitimate claims of EU beneficiaries",
says Lewandowski in an official statement. "We see the result today as estimates of upcoming claims validated by Member States themselves clearly show that we need additional funds to meet our legal obligations towards beneficiaries of EU funds".
But to save face, we have to go through these sad little rituals, banging the drum and letting the Carswells of this world sound off. Then, when it's all done, Mr Cameron's government will roll over, just like it always does, and the money will be paid.
Funny enough, when I was writing about this back
in April, I also noted that the Court of Auditors had been reporting on examples of waste in EU spending, the cumulative cost just over â¬11 billion. Then, I was complaining of an almost total lack of media comment, and here we
go again, with an additional half-billion wasted and the media largely silent.
However, despite media neglect of EU issues, Mr Cameron is not going to have an easy time of things. Not only is there the 2013 budget still to resolve, we have the
2014 negotiations catching up with the Member States. They have another â¬135.9 billion to find for the coming year â and that's before the European Parliament gets stuck in.
This budget scrap should come to a head in mid-October, which means that, for the next few months, EU budget issues are hardly going to be out of the headlines. Such events cannot help but damage the Conservative prospects for the euro-elections and give UKIP a head start.
COMMENT THREAD
