§ Mr. Mike O'BrienTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors underlie the discrepancies between his Department's assessment of the United Kingdom's net contribution to the European Union for 1994 and that of the European Court of Auditors. [10226]
§ Mr. Oppenheim[holding answer 13 January 1997]: The main reasons for the differences between the Government's estimate of the United Kingdom's net contribution in 1994 and the figures of the European Court of Auditors are as follows:
the European Commission introduced a supplementary and amending budget so late in 1993 that member states paid their contributions to this budget in early January 1994—in the UK's case £530 million. It would appear the Court of Auditors scored member states' contributions to the 1993 budgetary year. The Treasury scored these contributions to 1994;the Court of Auditors 1994 figures would appear to include the bulk of the receipts which the UK received in January 1995—£245 million. Treasury estimates scored these receipts to 1995;the Court of Auditors figures include payments by the Community direct to the UK private sector (£450 million). These were not taken into account in the Treasury's estimate which relates only to UK public sector transactions.
§ Mr. RadiceTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the net payments made by each EU member state to the European Union budget in 1995. [10516]
§ Mr. OppenheimI refer to the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir J. Stanley) on 11 December,Official Report, column 203.