UK Ambassador To The EU Insists That UK Rebate Is Non-Negotiable

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

15 October 2004

Speaking recently at an event organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies, the UK's ambassador to the European Union, John Grant announced that the EU budget rebate received by the UK government is "non-negotiable".

The rebate, won by Margaret Thatcher twenty years ago, was justified at the time by the fact that contributions made by the various member states to the EU budget were unbalanced.

According to an EU Observer report, Mr Grant claimed that this is still the case, and pointed out to those attending the CEPS event that if the rebate had not been in place, the United Kingdom would have paid 14 times more than France into EU coffers, despite the countries' comparable economic weight and population.

However, observers have suggested that the UK is likely to face increasing opposition to this stance following the publishing earlier this year of EC proposals which would see the UK's rebate halved in order to afford all countries which pay more into the EU budget than they receive a similar rebate.

Although the plan has reportedly been dismissed as "ludicrous" by British diplomats, the EC plans have a great deal of support amongst other member states.

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