Brussels, 04/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is attempting to find a solution to the problem created by the United Kingdom, which is refusing to pay a bill of €2.1 billion to the EU budget on 1 December.
The subject of revising the own resources balance in VAT and GNI (Gross National Income) has been included in the agenda for the next Economic and Financial Affairs Council on Friday 7 November in Brussels.
The Commission will present general information during the Ecofin Council on additional income for the EU budget resulting from the revised VAT and GNI own resources balances for the period 1995-2013. The additional EU revenue from the revised forecast amounts to €9.5 billion of which + €3.6 billion is for the United Kingdom and +1.1 billion for the Netherlands.
The Commission proposed in its draft amending budget no. 6 (doc. 14442/14) to enter the €9.5 billion into the 2014 EU budget and to offset it by reducing the GNI contribution of every member state in accordance with its GNI share in the total GNI of the European Union.
This would, for example, reduce the additional British contribution to €+2.1 billion (the Netherlands will have to pay €779 million, while France and Germany would see their contributions respectively reduced by €1 billion and €779 million). Italy will have to pay €340 million more. In effect, the draft amending 6/2013 is reduced to a total of €9.9 billion in the amount of contributions these countries pay to the 2014 budget.
Sources at the Italian presidency indicated that, “the first objective is to approve the 2015 budget and the 2014 draft amending budgets. We have to resolve this problem”. The number of meetings is significantly increasing with regard to facilitating an agreement that is acceptable to everybody: there was a meeting in Venice last Friday and Coreper will examine the dossier on Wednesday 5 November. There will then be a discussion at an EU finance minister level on Friday 7 November. Diplomatic sources at the Italian presidency indicated, “we are working hard to create the best conditions for obtaining a solution or agreement”.
These sources recognise that, “revision is the result of a statistical process but it is clear that there have been unprecedented results”. The Commission is seeking to understand the context in which the problem can be resolved.
Revising the balance of the own resources for VAT and GNI will take into account: updated data on economic developments in member states for the 2010-2013 tax years; revised macro-economic data, mainly for the 2002-2009 tax years, following the controls carried out by the Commission that created the subsequent reservations, which were later mitigated; the changes that have occurred in member state statistical sources.
Commission spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, confirmed on Monday 3 November that the date limit for payments was indeed 1 December. Asked about a possible fine, he indicated that it would more likely involve paying interest. According to the Commission, the interest to be paid at first would be 2.5% of the total amount, increasing by 0.25 points each month as from next January.
The Union of European Federalists (UEF-France) denounced, “the hypocrisy and manoeuvring by Mr Cameron, who is ' pretending to be surprised by having to pay' a bill of €2.1 billion to the 2014 budget but which had been duly acknowledged by his services and the Council”. UEF-France has formulated two proposals: that the EU creates an autonomous budget resolve, with its own resources that include, for example, a tax on financial transactions and a tax on carbon dioxide emissions; by swiftly ensuring that MEPs have the power of control over these own resources and even the power of initiative on the creation of these resources and what their amounts should be. (LC)