§ Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is the level of United Kingdom net contributions to the European Economic Community in 1989, following the appraisal by the Community; and if he will express the sum in sterling per household in the United Kingdom per week;
(2) what were the consequences for the United Kingdom of the appraisal by the European Economic Community of United Kingdom contributions; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Ryder[holding answer 20 March 1990]: The latest published estimate of the United Kingdom's net contribution to the Community budget in 1989, which appeared in the "Statement on the 1989 Community Budget" (Cm. 680), is £1,966 million. This figure is the equivalent of £1.73 per household per week, on the basis of the estimate of 21.816 million private households in the United Kingdom in 1986 which is contained in "Eurostat: Basic Statistics of the Community" (26th edition). A revised estimate of the United Kingdom's net contribution in 1989 will be published shortly in the "Statement on the 1990 Community Budget", and will be based on a full analysis of all items of revenue and expenditure including the European Commission's reappraisal of the United Kingdom's contributions to the Community budget.
§ Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the United Kingdom's net contribution to the EEC in 1989; and what were the totals for each of the previous five years;
(2) if he will make a statement on the nature of the deficit with EEC institutions of £2,301 millions on the balance of payments transfers sheet in the paper issued by the Central Statistical Office; and in what respect this figure differs from the previous figures published in the United Kingdom's net contribution for 1989.
§ Mr. Ryder[holding answers 19 and 20 March 1990]: The latest published estimate of the United Kingdom's net contribution to the Community budget in 1989 which appeared in the "Statement on the 1989 Community Budget" (Cm 680), is £1,966 million. The coverage of that figure differs from the coverage of the figure for the United Kingdom's net contribution to EC institutions published by the CSO. The two numbers are not therefore directly comparable.
A revised estimate for 1989, comparable with the figure of £1,966 million and based on a full analysis of all items of revenue and expenditure will be published shortly in the statement on the 1990 Community budget.
The net contribution to the Community budget for each of the previous five years were as follows:
Net contribution to European Community budget (£ million) 1984 656 1985 1,808 1986 572 1987 1,721 1988 1,362