HC Deb 17 December 1998 vol 322 cc758-61W
Mr. William Ross

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for each country in the European Union for each of the last 10 years and the current year (i) their net contribution, (ii) their net receipts from the EU Budget, (iii) what percentage these sums represented of the GDP of each nation in each year and (iv) what each sum in each case was in pounds sterling per capita of the country's population. [64194]

Ms Hewitt

The requested information is shown in the tables.

Table 1—Net contributions by Member States 1988–97 (million European currency units)
Country 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Finland n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 164.6 -27.1 -4.1
Sweden n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 937.3 752.5 1,226.8
UK 2,070.0 3,353.8 3,386.9 666.9 2,387.8 3,125.8 1,158.8 4,720.2 2,276.0 1,833.7
1 See note below on Belgium and Luxembourg net contribution.

Note:

A negative figure indicates that the Member State is a net recipient.

The table above has been compiled from the annual reports of the European Court of Auditors. These reports do not attribute all EC spending between Member States, and so do not provide a full picture of net contributions. In particular the effects of administration spending are understated. Before 1995 the Court took account of part of administration spending. Since that date their reports have adopted a revised format which excludes administration spending completely. This change means that the figures for 1995–97 are not wholly comparable with those for 1988–94.

Most EC administration spending is disbursed in Belgium or Luxembourg. The figures above for those countries must therefore be treated with considerable caution (and are shown in italics). Figures for 1992–97 only have been published by the Commission in their report on the Operation of the Own Resources System (ref 11666/98). These figures which do not take account of all administration spending, show that, for instance, in 1997 the net receipts from the EC Budget on Belgium and Luxembourg were 1,080 mecus and 725 mecus respectively.

Source:

Court of Auditors Reports

Table 2—The percentage of Member States GDP accounted for by the net contribution or receipt
Country 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Belgium1 0.76 0.79 0.50 -0.26 -0.10 -0.03 0.16 0.15 0.36 0.46
Denmark -0.36 -0.18 -0.42 -0.33 -0.25 -0.33 -0.16 -0.23 -0.14 -0.02
Germany 0.60 0.61 0.47 0.63 0.64 0.72 0.79 0.73 0.59 0.61
Greece -2.73 -3.28 -3.78 -4.06 -4.74 -5.26 -4.64 -3.97 -4.06 -3.97
Spain -0.46 0.01 -0.44 -0.54 -0.61 -0.76 -0.77 -1.69 -1.30 -1.25
France 0.22 0.34 0.19 0.25 0.14 0.10 0.23 0.15 0.04 0.08
Ireland -3.93 -4.08 -5.27 -6.30 -5.31 -5.73 -3.86 -3.82 -4.06 -3.94
Italy -0.02 0.18 0.05 0.15 0.05 0.18 0.30 0.07 0.15 0.03
Luxembourg1 1.02 0.86 0.74 -1.81 -1.67 -1.72 -2.06 0.34 0.59 0.46
Netherlands -0.59 -0.54 -0.16 0.23 0.33 0.50 0.64 0.66 0.78 0.74
Austria — — — — — — — 0.51 0.15 0.44
Portugal — — — — — — — -3.10 -3.40 -3.07
Finland -1.26 -1.03 -1.13 -2.45 -3.01 -3.58 -2.56 0.17 -0.03 0.00
Sweden — — — — — — — 0.53 0.38 0.61
UK 0.29 0.44 0.44 0.08 0.30 0.39 0.13 0.56 0.25 0.16
1 See note in Table 1 on Belgium and Luxembourg net contribution.

Note:

A negative figure indicates that the Member State is a net recipient.

Source:

GDP figures taken from "European Economy" No 65 (1998), published by the European Commission.

Net Contributions as in Table 1.

Table 3—Net contribution per capita in £s
Country 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Belgium1 66.8 76.0 55.5 -29.2 -12.1 -4.6 23.7 25.1 58.9 67.0
Denmark -42.8 -22.8 -58.7 -47.0 -39.3 -56.5 -29.6 -47.9 -29.5 -3.1
Germany 66.0 70.7 62.7 77.0 88.3 113.5 129.6 134.7 106.7 94.3
Greece -99.1 -133.7 -174.9 -200.9 -256.4 -310.3 -285.9 -273.3 -301.4 -274.8
Spain -22.9 0.5 -31.5 -41.3 -51.6 -61.6 -61.6 -150.8 -122.0 -102.5
France 21.1 35.1 22.7 30.1 18.5 13.8 35.1 24.3 6.3 11.6
Ireland -218.1 -256.6 -385.6 -468.0 -442.0 -516.7 -378.0 -429.1 -500.0 -493.9
Italy -1.5 16.9 5.2 17.1 6.5 20.8 34.4 8.8 19.6 3.9
Luxembourg1 119.8 114.9 112.2 -288.8 -306.8 -370.8 -486.1 89.5 153.1 105.8
Netherlands -51.8 -51.1 -17.6 25.0 40.1 67.5 92.1 106.2 126.4 103.7
Austria — — — — — — — 92.1 27.1 67.6
Portugal — — — — — — — -198.0 -225.6 -182.3
Finland -34.6 -33.1 -43.5 -107.6 -159.8 -198.5 -143.7 26.4 -4.2 -0.6
Sweden — — — — — — — 86.8 67.8 94.8
UK 24.1 39.3 42.0 8.1 30.2 41.8 15.4 66.0 31.1 21.4
1 See note in Table 1 on Belgium and Luxembourg net contribution.

Note:

A negative figure indicates that the Member State is a net recipient.

Source:

Population figures taken from "European Economy" No 65 (1998), published by the European Commission.

Conversion to £s using the annual average ecu/£ exchange rate.

Net Contributions as in Table 1.

Mr. Gill

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the latest estimate of the total EU budget for the current year; and what percentage of it he estimates will be allocated to CAP expenditure. [63104]

Ms Hewitt

The EC budget for 1998 was set at 83.53 billion ecus, of which 40.44 billion ecus, or 48.4 per cent. was allocated for CAP expenditure. Latest estimates suggest that the final outturn for the overall budget will be very close to budget, although expenditure on the CAP may be some 1 billion ecus below plans. CAP expenditure would therefore account for around 47 per cent. of all expenditure.