§ THE EARL OF LAUDERDALEasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the estimated Budget of the E.E.C. for 1974, expressed both 622WA in sterling and in units of account, and how this compares both with the 1973 Budget and with the forward Estimate used in Paragraph 93 of the 1971 White Paper on the E.E.C.
§ LORD WINDLESHAMThe Budget for 1974 as currently before the European Parliament totals 5,026 million units of account (mua), or £2,094 million. The 1973 Budget, including supplementary budgets approved by the Council, stands at 5,134 mua, or £2,139 million.
The 1971 White Paper, Cmnd. 4715, assumed that the Budget would amount to £1,400 million in 1973 and would rise to £1,600 million by 1977: the figure assumed for 1974 was about £1,430 million. These figures were, however, at 1971 prices and, moreover, did not allow for the refund of collection costs to Member States. (When Cmnd. 4715 was published we assumed these would be deducted at source; the 1974 Budget includes 294 mua, or £123 million, for this purpose.) At 1973 prices, therefore, and including this refund of collection costs, the Cmnd. 4715 figure for 1974 would have been about 4,100 mua (£1,725 million).
The U.K. net contribution to the 1974 Budget, however, estimated at £115 million in Cmnd. 4715 (about £130 million at 1973 prices), is now tentatively estimated to be of the order of £90 million. because of substantially higher anticipated receipts.
House adjourned at a quarter before eight o'clock.