§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimates his Department has made of the likely costs to public expenditure in (i) Hungary, (ii) the Czech Republic and (iii) Poland of membership of NATO. [51886]
§ Mr. Tony LloydAs a percentage of their GDP, defence expenditure in 1998 in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland is estimated at 1.8 per cent, 1.51 per cent. and 2.4 per cent. respectively. On joining NATO the Czech Republic has agreed to pay 0.9 per cent., Hungary 0.65 per cent. and Poland 2.48 per cent. of NATO's common funded budgets which currently amount to some one billion pounds per annum. As with existing members of NATO, the contributions of new Member States to the Alliance will be a relatively small element of their total defence budgets.