European Community (Budget)

HC Deb 13 June 1979 vol 968 cc243-4W

38. Mr. Heffer

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what attempt is to be made to reduce the British contribution to the EEC budget.

Mr. Lawson

In conversation with our Community colleagues, at the Council of Ministers and elsewhere, Ministers have stressed that the United Kingdom's present and prospective net contribution to the EEC budget is inequitable and un- sustainable. At the last Finance Council my right hon. Friend emphasised that it was in the Community's best interest, as well as the United Kingdom's, that the next European Council should address itself to this manifest injustice as a matter of urgency and take the decisions necessary to remedy it.