In February 2013 even The Daily Express was conned into
believing that supposedly ‘tough-talking’ Cameron had, for the first time,
secured a meaningful reduction in the five-year EU Budget.[i] The truth dawned a few weeks later when it
turned out that EU finance ministers had agreed a £6.2 billion rise in spending,
above previously agree plans, in one year! That decision, which the UK did not
have enough votes to stop, implied an extra £770 million on its 2013 payments to
the EU.[ii] In December 2013 the five-year Budget was
changed again, adding an extra £10 billion to the UK’s commitment until
2018.[iii] Still worse was to follow. In March 2014 EU
Budget commissioner, Janusz Lewandowski, said that EU institutions had overspent
their budget allocations by £20 billion in 2013![iv]
[i] Macer Hall ‘Tough-talking David Cameron forces through first
ever EU budget cut’, Daily Express,
9th February 2013. To quote from the story, ‘David Cameron was celebrating a spectacular and
historic diplomatic triumph last night after forcing the European Union’s first
ever budget cut.’
[ii] Matt Chorley ‘Britain loses EU budget battle’,
Daily Mail, 15th May 2013.
[iii] Matthew Holehouse ‘Britain’s EU contribution to
jump by £10bn as taxpayers carry burden of ailing eurozone’, The Daily Telegraph, 5th
December 2013.
[iv] Matt Chorley ‘Anger as Europe demands an
extra £2.5 billion from Britain to plug another blackhole in the EU's budget’,
Daily Mail,
4th March
2014.
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