European Affairs

I am most grateful for confirmation from the hon. Gentleman that we are moving in the right direction. One of Tony Blair's conditions for giving up parts of Britain's rebate was that the Commission should conduct a wide-ranging review of EU spending. I am disappointed that the deadline for the review at the end of 2009 is unlikely to be met. However, a leaked draft paper on the budget review suggests that the Commission, once it has got its act together, will put forward several worthy proposals for reform. They will include some proposals that would not serve in Britain's best interest, but I welcome the proposals significantly to reduce the amount of money spent on agriculture and to reform the structural and cohesion funds. As far back as 2003, the then Prime Minister wrote in The Times that the structural and cohesion funds should be returned to the control of the member states. Will the Government push for that in the EU's next budget negotiations; or is the Prime Minister—and is the Minister—prepared to give up this pledge just as his predecessor gave up part of our rebate in return for nothing? The UK is now the second biggest net contributor to the EU budget according to Treasury figures. We pay almost £10 billion a year into the EU's budget for 2007 to 2013 and get back about £5.2 billion. Crucially, the UK's net contribution will rise from £4.1 billion in 2009-10 to £6.4 billion in 2011-12. That is after the European Parliament voted in October to increase Britain's payments by £5 million a day, against the advice of the European Commission and the European Council. Moreover, the UK is also the EU member that receives the least back from the budget per head. According to figures from Open Europe, we receive only €770 per head in EU funding, which is lower than any other member state. It is half as much as France, which receives €1,480, and a quarter as much as Ireland, which receives €3,090. Perversely, the richest country in the EU—Luxembourg—gets more than €22,000 per capita because it benefits from hosting several EU agencies.