§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the total expenditure of the European Community and of the common agricultural policy in the most recent annual period for which figures are available; and what were the comparable figures in each of the previous five years.
§ Mr. Ian StewartTotal expenditure by the European Community in 1982 amounted to some 20.4 billion ecu. Expenditure from the guarantee section of the European8W agricultural guarantee and guidance fund accounted for 12¸4 billion ecu of this total. The following table shows comparable figures over the period 1977–1981.
Total Community* expenditure Agricultural guarantee* expenditure 1977 8.7 †6.2 1978 12.0 ‡9.3 1979 14.4 ‡10.4 1980 16.3 ‡11.3 1981 17.8 ║11.0 * Source European Court of Auditors report on the 1981 financial year. † Billion units of account. ‡ Billion European units of account. ║ Billion European currency units. The European unit of account was introduced on 1 January 1978, replacing the unit of account. It is not possible to make direct comparisons between these two units of account. The European currency unit was introduced on 1 January 1981 and currently is equivalent to the European unit of account.