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Future EU Finances and Own Resources

I am delighted to hear that south Wales will do well from the funding, but the hon. Gentleman must be aware—as we all should be—that it is British taxpayers’ money; it is simply being recycled through EU institutions, losing administrative costs meanwhile. It would be far more efficient, as I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer believes too, to pay the money directly, and I do not see why we cannot look into doing that instead. Given all those issues, no wonder the Prime Minister identified the urgency of reform, but how shocking that reform has not been addressed. Not only did the Prime Minister fail to secure real reform of the CAP, but having linked the future of the British rebate to that reform he gave up £7 billion of the rebate while getting nothing in return. That £7 billion alone is equivalent to the total annual budget for policing in England and Wales. The surrender on the rebate is only a small part of the increased cost to British taxpayers, however; the net cost of our payments to the EU will increase by far more. At present, we pay in about £2.8 billion a year more than we get out. Under the deal agreed in December, that net cost almost doubles to £5.5 billion every year. Furthermore, as the hon. Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins) pointed out, those funds do not always go to the most deserving places. Under the new financial perspective, we will pay in a fifth more than the French, but we shall get back only half as much. Per capita EU spending in the UK will be a quarter of the figure in Ireland and will be lower than in any of the other, soon to be 27, member states. Remarkably, the expensive new Foreign Office booklet, ““Guide to the European Union””, which cost taxpayers a further £80,000 to produce, notes thatthe existing net cost is £3 billion a year—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) is clutching his copy, so at least somebody was waiting for it to arrive on their doormat. The booklet makes no mention, however, of the fact that the cost is set to double from 2007.