According to the Taxpayers' Alliance, EU membership costs every Briton £2,000 per year, compared with the £220 quoted by the EU. The UK-based lobby group says that, annually, the total cost of British membership of the 27-member club is £118 billion. This contrasts sharply with Commission statistics which show that in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available, Britain's net contribution to the EU totalled some £3.8 billion. The Taxpayers' Alliance bases its figures on what it considers the "real, underestimated and hidden" costs of EU membership. These include Britain's direct contributions to the EU, the cost to UK business of complying with and administering EU regulations, EU administration costs and also higher food prices, said to result from implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy. The claims are made in a new Taxpayers' Alliance booklet, entitled "The Great European Rip-Off." Its co-author, Matthew Elliott, the organisation's CEO, said: "The book tries to find a total cost of the EU but does not suggest that it is all waste or that it could be eliminated overnight. "However, an estimate of the total cost provides an important guide to the burden placed on member countries' economies and their citizens due to EU membership." The Commission said it uses "totally" different data based solely on Britain's direct contributions to the EU. A spokesman said that in 2007 Britain's net contribution to the EU was 4.1 billion euros (£3.8 billion), or 0.21 per cent of the country's GNI. "Whatever anyone else says, we stick by these figures," she said.Real cost of EU is ten times higher than EC figures show, Taxpayers' Alliance says
The real cost of EU membership for British taxpayers is ten times higher than figures quoted by the European Commission suggest, it has been claimed.
Friday, 20 March 2009
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