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Future EU Finances and Own Resources

Indeed. It would also have worked if he had said ““If we want to achieve economic competitiveness we will have to renegotiate the legislation, or else legislate unilaterally, on our own terms, here at Westminster.”” He is not going to do that either, although, as I shall explain shortly, this financial settlement includes a vast amount of money that is being poured down the throat of the European Union for the purpose—allegedly—of increasing competitiveness. As the hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) knows extremely well, the Kok report criticised the Lisbon agenda because it does not work. The vast amount—billions of pounds—being spent on that agenda is being completely wasted. It is being frittered away, and it is our taxpayers’ money.