§ Mr. JackTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a breakdown of each of the underspends on EU programmes which provided the £400 million distributed to pensioners in the July 1997 Budget. [25247]
§ Mrs. Liddell[holding answer 26 January 1998]: The saving on the UK's net contribution to the EC which my right hon. Friend announced in November reflected the difference between the forecast of net payments to EC Institutions in the previous Government's expenditure plans for 1997–98 and the actual net payments the Government now expects to make for 1997–98, which are based on more recent information. The saving was therefore not directly derived from specific items of underspending in the EC Budget; indeed the previous forecast published in November 1996 Financial Statement and Budget Report had assumed an element of underspending.
That said, underspending in the main areas of the EC Budget in 1996 was as follows:
Fund Mecu EAGGF 2,284 Structural Operations 1,394 Training etc., Energy etc., internal market and research 722 External action 985 Administration 578 Source:
Diagram VIII of the European Court of Auditor's report on the 1996 Community Budget.
The 1996 underspend was reflected in reductions in the contributions actually made by Member States in 1997.