THE EU REBATE AGAIN

THE European Union budget for 2014-2020 will be decided next year but the Commissioner responsible for it, Janusz Lewandowski, is already taking soundings. A month ago he floated the idea of some direct EU taxation of national citizens but he was quickly told by Britain and Germany that the idea was unacceptable.

This week in an interview in a German newspaper (an odd way of doing it) he has warned the British government that the substantial rebate in EU contributions obtained by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 is no longer justified. The rebate was agreed because at that time 80 per cent of EU budget costs went to the Common Agricultural Policy from which Britain benefitted very little. The proportion is now 40 per cent and Britain's rebate has fallen from 26 billion to six billion euros. If Commissioner Lewandowski persists in calling for an end to the Briitsh rebate in the budget to be negotiated next year David Cameron and George Osborne will be under considerable pressure to match up to the hard line the Iron Lady always took with Brussels even though their case will be considerably less persuasive than hers was at the time. Mr Lewandowski is preparing for a fight on this issue and many others. In his interview he commented: “Negotiations on the budget don't bring Europe together. They are areas for quarrels and they take a lot of time.”