How much does EU membership cost?
UK current forecast payments to the EU Budget 2016-2017 :
- Gross UK payment to EU: £19.228 billion
- UK “Rebate”: £4.444 billion
- UK money paid back to UK as EU grants: £4.606 billion
- UK net contribution: £10.178 billion
The gross contribution is rising. The “rebate” of OUR moneyis declining. (thanks to Tony Blair’s ‘renegotiations’ of 2006). The EU spends £4.6 billion of UK money in the UK on projects undemocratically selected by the EU.
An elected British government should be able to make decisions on how to spend UK tax-payers money.
The indirect EU costs on the UK economy are much higher. Indirect EU costs include
i) The Common Agricultural Policy.
ii) The Common Fisheries Policy
iii) Over regulation on business, to name just three.
Professor Tim Congdon has calculated that the direct and indirect costs on the economy for 2015 to be 12% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or £190 billion per annum. [xi]
Would we lose millions in EU grants?
No! “EU money” paid to the UK is just a small fraction of the UK tax payers money paid to the EU. Germany always pays the most with Britain usually in the top four. 1975 was the only year when the UK was paid more by the EU than it put. 1975 was the last time we had a referendum on EU membership!! The UK voters were bribed – mostly with their own money.
37 British regions are classified under the EU’s system for Regional Aid. EU figures [x] show that 35 UK regions are net contributors. Only UK two regions, West Wales and Cornwall were net beneficiaries. The UK gets back £1 for every £3.55 we pay to the EU. Between 2007-2013 the UK paid £29.5 billion in EU membership fees. The UK received only £8.7 billion. Britain’s poorest and most deprived regions are subsidising regions of other EU member states.
Neither is this money well spent. Between 2007-2013 the European Regional Development Funds payments to Wales totalled £2 billion. The effect on unemployment in Wales was insignificant. A significant proportion of the money paid by UK taxpayers to the EU is lost in fraud.
Does EU membership benefit each UK family by £3000 per year?
No! Any economic benefit claimed from EU membership is off-set by other losses. Would £3000 per year pay for the lower wages and higher house prices caused by economic migration from poor EU countries