---

Future EU Finances and Own Resources

My hon. Friend raises an important issue. It is also interesting to students of Kremlinology that the Chancellor’s other representative on earth was the previous Minister for Europe, but I am not sure what the significance of all those movements is. Thankfully, that is a matter for others. Everything I have described was clear in December, when it looked as though the Prime Minister had managed to reach the worst possible deal for Britain, but the picture has grown steadily worse since, with British Ministers giving away their strongest cards, apparently powerless to stop a further collapse in our negotiating position. In February, the then Minister for Europe submitted an explanatory memorandum that set out the Government’s approach to the negotiation of the inter-institutional agreement, stating their priority that the agreement"““fully reflects the deal reached in December””" and that,"““the Government will strongly oppose any proposals during the negotiation of an agreement to increase the overall expenditure ceiling…given the delicate nature of the compromise reached in December, the Government does not see the scope for re-allocation of spending between different expenditure headings””." However, despite the Government’s supposedly ““strong opposition””, the European Parliament was able to push through a further £2.68 billion increase in the budget last month and, as has already been mentioned, the Budget Commissioner has suggested that the picture is actually worse than had previously been acknowledged due to the fact that a further £24 billion in various financial instruments is being accounted for outside the EU budget total. To make matters worse, the British Treasury has changed the way in which it presents payments to the EU, making it impossible to make direct comparisons between past and future years. Given that The Sunday Times reported a source saying of the EU Budget deal that"““The Treasury is quietly fuming…we have ended up giving away much more than we expected and with precious little to show for it in return ””," the changes in the presentation of the figures may be to cover the Government’s embarrassment.