Chirac presses Britain over rebate
Britain is coming under renewed pressure from French president Jacques Chirac to give up its £3 billion European rebate.
Mr Chirac wants an end to the 20-year-old “cheque Britannique”, which was secured under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
She won the rebate in Fontainebleau in 1984, famously saying: “I want my money back.”
Britain says the rebate reflects the imbalance between the huge sums of money paid to the EU and the relatively small amount Britain receives from farm subsidies.
The British government has said it will give up the rebate when the Common Agricultural Policy is fundamentally reformed.
Defenders of the rebate say Britain pays the EU two and a half times as much as France with the rebate and 14 times as much without.
Since joining the EU in 1973, Britain has paid £76 billion – saving £57 billion on the £133 billion due without the rebate.
Mr Chirac told EU leaders meeting in Brussels that the rebate was an obstacle to reaching agreement on economic development across the 25-nation bloc.
“We can only really have a balanced agreement if we call into question the British cheque, which is no longer justified,” he said.
His words came after Prime Minister Tony Blair made concessions at the “jobs and growth” summit to bolster the French government’s bid for a yes vote in the referendum on the European constitution.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain would veto any bid to axe the rebate.
“We have an absolute veto,” he said. “The justice of the rebate is still there.”
The EU Commission recommends an end to the rebate with a “discount” system on EU bills if net contributions pass 0.35 per cent of national wealth.
European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Britain ought to give up the rebate as she was much more prosperous than before.
But the leader of UK Independence party said such suggestions were “extraordinary”.
“It is an extraordinary suggestion when just at the very moment that Britain looks like becoming the biggest net contributor to pay for all this nonsense, we’re going to give up our £3 billion contribution as well,” said Roger Knapman.
“Why can’t all this money be spent on our schools, our own hospitals, our own roads and our own pensioners?”
Separately, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden all want the EU budget to be capped at one per cent of national income.
The European Commission wants to increase it to 1.26 per cent.
