British rebate

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Originally Posted by evil_maniac from mars

Or you have loads of nukes. Yes, this is a subtle dig at Bush.

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right - the debate over the UK's rebate is analogous to the conflict with iraq prior to invasion

well placed and meaningful jibe against bush if i must say


anyway, i havn't found any legitimate reasons for the EU to simply end the the rebate without a renegotiation of the entire construct. It would be one thing if the UK was closed to this, but since blair has said it could end as long as EVERYTHING was taken into concideration, the UK's position is without any serious flaws that i can see

their position is solid and chirac seems to be becoming senile or desperate

im still looking for a real arguement from the anti-rebate side that takes the disparity in national spending between the UK and France seriously (i mean - France has a higher population than the UK and makes fewer payments to the union - i dont see how they can logically say that the UK is morally dearth for not wanting to pay an even unfavorable ratio). some balance needs to be made on all sides

Now, if you read the quote, perhaps you will understand.

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Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

im still looking for a real arguement from the anti-rebate side that takes the disparity in national spending between the UK and France seriously (i mean - France has a higher population than the UK and makes fewer payments to the union - i dont see how they can logically say that the UK is morally dearth for not wanting to pay an even unfavorable ratio). some balance needs to be made on all sides

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Read the article in my post #25 in this very topic and you'll understand that the contribution is related to the GDP, not to the population. If the UK paid a lot more, it's because they have had a much stronger economy than France over the past 20 years. What needs to be fixed is the disparity in the percentage of GDP that is destined for the EU's budget.

By the way, to end some prejudices this graph will show you France isn't stealing money.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...rs2_gra203.gif

I think the country truly entitled to complain about the EU's budget distribution isn't the UK, but rather Germany, no?

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I think the country truly entitled to complain about the EU's budget distribution isn't the UK, but rather Germany, no?

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Germany has every right to complain about the disparity but doesn't. It also isn't voicing concerns that the single currency has run down their economy, increase inflation and caused rocketting unemployment.
However, just because Britain doesn't have the most right to complain, it doesn't mean that it has no right to complain at all.

The strange thing about the EU at the moment is that it seems to want to punish Britain for having a succesful economic model. Perhaps the people of old Europe would do far better to take a look at their system and perhaps learn something, in particular the French. It would make much sense to look to the future rather than cling to the current bizarre logic of: "Eastern Europeans are going to steal our jobs because they will work for less, therefore we will introduce heavy, expensive legislation to stop this happening which will increase labour costs here."
The old EU needs to look to the future rather than the past. The CAP is the past, as is the British rebate which is tied to the CAP. Abolishing the CAP and the rebate would allow Europe to move forward instead of stagnating into a total welfare state. Britain should not contribute more to the European Union while it continues to squander funds on backwards social measures.

Bloody hell no wonder Spain voted 'Si' in the Euro referendum.....look how much money they get ~:eek: ...

This would be a good time for the politicos to clear away all the deadwood and properly reform the whole of the budget, CAP and rebates/payments.

Perhaps they should bin the EU as a single entity and return to the trading bloc we all thought we'd joined.