09/07/2014
Both
Bishop Hill and M E Synon on
Breitbart have picked up the
EU funding story, and there is much more to come. Total funds dispersed in 2013 to third party beneficiaries amount to â¬19.34bn, with 33,720 "commitments" averaging â¬573,571 each.
Staying with the climate change theme, we see that the University of East Anglia was given â¬4,761,336 in grants, and the Met Office got a relatively modest â¬2,629,541.
Of the many interesting things emerging, though, are the country spends. One wonders why the United States is so needy that the EU finds it necessary to give it â¬72,647,859 million (towards 390 recipients). A partial explanation is that some of the money goes to United Nations organisations based in the US, including the UN Development Programme, which gets over â¬12 million.
In this, though, the UN contributions only account for â¬27,604,832, leaving over â¬45 million paid to a diverse range of other needy causes, including â strangely - â¬8,828,462 given to 45 university recipients. But why the EU should be paying, for instance, the Pennsylvania State University â¬155,184 for research in violent online political extremism, is something of a mystery.
Other puzzles are why the EU is paying the OECD in Paris â¬2,669,612 or the TUC â¬28,439. More sinister than puzzling is why the European Trade Union Institute was paid â¬10,611,000 and I am distinctly less than impressed with â¬4,000,000 having been spent on: "Facilitating India's Transition towards low carbon development by supporting implementation of national policies and programmes for offshore wind".
On a more positive note, however, we can put to bed one of the lazy Europhile claims regarding Norway's EU contributions, paid as a result of its EEA participation. The estimated EFTA
contribution for the 2007-2013 multi-annual period was in the order of â¬1.7 billion â averaging approximately â¬250 million a year. Norway carried 95.77 percent of that cost (â¬1.63bn).
However, from the Financial Transparency system, we find that Norwegian beneficiaries over the same period were paid â¬1,01bn from EU funds, making the seven-year net contribution in the order of â¬620m, or about â¬90 million net contribution per year.
If the same pro-rate basis was applied to the UK after it had left the EU, it might be expected to find about â¬1.1bn annually in net payments, which is rather less than some pundits are claiming.
Still, the EU is not all such serious stuff. If you fancy watching a film, you will be pleased to know that the EU has paid a handsome â¬10,800,000 for the networking of cinemas screening European films, paid to the Association of Europa Cinemas in France.
Never let it be said that "Europe" doesn't do anything for you.
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