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European Council

I have just read out what I said six months ago, and that is not an accurate summary of what I said. The rebate will rise in value and we will receive more back in the rebate in the next financial period than in the last. The rebate will remain on all agricultural spending. The rebate will remain on all spending in the original European 15. But we cannot say that those poorer countries should pay the rebate in respect of the money going to their economic development. Otherwise we would not be doing what I said in June that we should, which is in the meantime—before the fundamental CAP reform takes place—to pay our fair share of the costs of enlargement. If we had refused to do that, there would have been no budget deal and there would have been crisis in all the central and eastern European states, and we would have been blamed for that. That would not have been very sensible negotiating.