Brussels, 24/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 24 October, a row over the budget broke out at the European Council, with British Prime Minister David Cameron refusing to pay another €2.1 billion to the 2014 budget before 1 December 2014. The issue will be discussed again at the Ecofin Council (Budget) on 14 November, as requested by the UK.
Cameron spoke of his deep “frustration” and “anger”. He slammed this “completely unjustified” bill of €2.1 billion to be paid by 1 December. “This kind of behaviour is unacceptable”, he said. “It's an appalling way to behave”, he added. The UK is one of the top contributor countries to the budget. Cameron said he had interrupted the European Council meeting, having spoken to the Italian, Greek and Dutch leaders about the issue, and having asked for an emergency meeting to be held on the matter. Cameron said he wanted to understand how the figures were reached. He noted that annual adjustments were made - sometime upwards and sometimes downwards - and said that he was not against adjustments, but that there had never been a bill of €2.1 billion before. Such a demand from the European Commission does not help the issue of the UK staying a member of the EU, Cameron stated, who is under pressure from eurosceptics and has promised a referendum in 2017 on the UK remaining a member of the EU.
The new calculation of national contributions appears in draft amending budget no 6/2014, adopted on 17 October. The text takes account of: - the annual revision of own resources figures for 2010-2013, considering how the economy develops and including new activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution; - the Commission's reserves after the countries are monitored for the 2002-2009 period; - the improvement of statistical data (ESA 2010) as regards the UK. The net effect of this draft amending budget on gross national income (GNI) results in a heavy bill to be paid by the UK (€2.12 billion), the Netherlands (€642.7 million), Italy (€340.1 million), Greece (€89.4 million) and Cyprus (€42.4 million). At the same time, this draft is good for France (€1.016 billion less to pay), Germany (-€779 million), Denmark (-€321.4 million) and Poland
(-€316.7 million). The Dutch minister for finance and head of the eurozone, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, described this news as an “unpleasant surprise”.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the countries were surprised by the size of the revised budget figures. As regards Cameron, she admitted that it was not easy to find €2 billion within a few weeks. (LC with SP and MD)