The Daily Mail reports: “EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said Brussels overspent its budget by an astonishing £20billion last year” and that “the cash would be taken from this year’s budget in the short term.” The article points out that “A request on this scale would cost British taxpayers about £2.5billion this year – more than the entire annual budget of the Foreign Office.” Bill Cash described the situation as ‘completely unacceptable’. He was quoted as saying ‘They are stretching the patience of the British taxpayer beyond breaking point. We cannot go on just paying up every time they come back with their begging bowl.’
It is important to recall that last year the European Parliament and the Council adopted the nine amending budgets put forward by the European Commission asking further contributions from member states amounting around €15 billion. This has cost UK’s taxpayers an additional €1.9bn, which is unacceptable.
Last November the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission not only reached an agreement on the outstanding bills but they also approved the 2014 EU’s budget. The 2014 budget amounts to €142.6 billion in commitments and €135.5 billion in payments, which is lower than the European Parliament proposed figures but more than what has been proposed buy the member states. Yet, according to the European Commission this year’s budget is not enough to pay outstanding bills from 2013 that amount €23.4 bn.
The time has come to say No and stop paying this vast amount of money for running the EU, which is a failing project.
