HC Deb 26 October 1977 vol 936 cc668-9W
Mr. Hooley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on recent conversations with the West German Government conveying enhanced payments by the United Kingdom into the EEC budget, and the consequences of any agreement reached for the British balance of payments.

Mr. Joel Barnett:

My right hon. Friend and I have repeatedly made it clear to other member States of the EEC—for example, at the Joint Foreign Affairs/ Finance Council on 18th October—that we will not accept any increase in our contribution to the Community budget as a result of a change in the budget unit of account. There is no question of any separate agreement with the German Government on this issue.

Mr. Hooley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will set out in the Official Report the actual gross payments by the United Kingdom into the EEC budget in 1975–76, 1976–77, and 1977–78, and the estimates for such payments in terms of public expenditure for 1978–79 and 1979–80.

Mr. Joel Barnett:

The actual gross payments to the Community budget by the United Kingdom are as follows:

£ million
1975–76 … … … 370.4
1976–77 … … … 543.5

The estimates of our gross contributions for the years 1977–78 to 1979–80 are as given in "The Government's

1976 1977
Units of account £ Units of account £
Official Journal 5,000,000 2,083,333 5,354,000 2,230,833
General publications 1,638,000 682,500 1,720,000 716,667
Statistical publications 1,100,000 458,333 1,210,000 504,167
Expenditure on other publications and popularisation 162,000 67,500 170,000 70,833
Expenditure on the dissemination of information, popularisation and on participation in public events 5,200,000 2,166,667 5,800,000 2,416,667
Information projects relating to direct elections to the European Parliament — — 1,000,000 416,667
Dissemination of information to young people 1,040,000 433,333 1,100,000 458,333

The amounts in sterling have been converted from budget units of account at the rate used for the Community budget of 2.4ua=£1.

The amount spent on information, publicity and similar services in individual member States is not available. The Commission publish details annually of its information programme, and this is deposited with Parliament.

The 1976 programme was given in R/16/76, which was deposited on 21st January 1976, and the 1977 programme was given in R/3206/76, which was deposited on 7th February 1977.