§ Sir Anthony Meyerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the European Commission has made available to Her Majesty's Government estimates of the net contributions of each member State in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981; and if he will publish these in the Official Report.
§ Mr. RidleyThe Commission has made available the following estimates of net contributions (-) and receipts in respect of the Community budgets for 1980 and 1981:
million ecus 1980 1981 Germany -1,540 -1,647 France 423 624 Netherlands 441 223 Belgium 255 388 Denmark 331 302 Luxembourg 232 282 United Kingdom -1,521 -1,505 Italy 735 619 Ireland 644 591 Greece na 123 These estimates—which the Government are studying—are intended to be on the basis used in the agreement of 30 May 1980 on United Kingdom budget refunds. The figures do not take account of the agreement itself, which gave the United Kingdom net refunds of 1,175 million ecus in respect of 1980 and 1,420 million ecus in respect of 1981. The Commission has not, to our knowledge, provided comparable estimates for 1978 and 1979.