Published PAC Report Reveals Extent EU Financial Penalties Hit UK

Responding to the publication of the report of the Public Accounts Committee on Financial management of the European Union budget in 2014, which was ordered to be printed by the House of Commons this year, Chief Executive of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliot said:

“We hand £350 million pounds to Brussels every week. Some of that money does get sent back to the UK but it is not necessarily spent on our priorities and it is laden with strict rules and conditions. Even worse, the EU often fines us if we don’t do exactly what Brussels says. The only way to get out of this racket is to Vote Leave on 23 June.”

The EU is fraught with red tape, fines and ridiculous diktats that serve little or no purpose whatsoever.

The National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that EU disallowances cost Britain £642 million between 2005 and 2015.

Out of funds received from the Commission 2.7% were disallowances, and the UK is subject to disallowances to a greater extent than twenty-one other member states, including France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Germany.

Forecasts by the NAO reveal that by 2021, £370 million will have to be paid to the Commission. A ridiculous sum that can only be halted by leaving the European Union.

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, is becoming more complex despite claims of reform, thus exposing the UK to a greater risk of fines in the years ahead. The UK’s attempts at simplifying CAP have been ignored by the EU, and many member states have no way of implementing half of the new regulations.

Not only are many of the regulations unworkable within a system that is overburdened by red-tape and unnecessary over complication, the UK pays twice as much into CAP as it gets out. What the UK does receive comes with the risk of fines. In 2015 the UK received £2.9 billion in CAP funding from the EU, whilst paying £5.5 billion to CAP, which is 12.57% of overall CAP EU wide expenditure. What is the point of paying in a vast amount to CAP  and getting nothing much back, which is fined anyway?

In addition, other member states receive far more funding than the UK does. In 2014, France benefited the most, receiving 15.7% of payments, followed by Spain with 11.7%, Germany with 11.3%, Italy with 10.0% and Poland with 9.1%. The UK received just 7.2%.

The skewed profligate red tape burdened EU is its own worst enemy, and logic states that leaving is the only answer to the dire EU mess. Let us use this wasted EU money on ourselves instead. Vote Leave on June 23.