Quote Originally Posted by Fenrig
if you paid attention to earlier years, you'll notice that France's net contribution used to be tiny until a few years ago.
Okay, so I checked the internet for reliable links for earlier years. I am having trouble finding online sources prior to the mid-90's.

Here is what I found, though. 1994, the last year of twelve EU members.

Some selected countries and figures:

Total contribution:
France 12,550.9
United Kingdom 6,417.4
Netherlands 4,245.9
Denmark 1,296.2
Italy 7,759.6

Net contribution
France -2,626.4
United Kingdom -1,158.8
Netherlands -1,829.9
Denmark 198.9
Italy -2,540.4

France was second in absolute contribution, directly behind behemoth Germany. And third in per capita net contribution, after The Netherlands and Germany. France paid well over twice as much as the UK, in both absolute and relative amount (per capita).
Worthy of note is that The Netherlands were very hard done by, and that wealthy Denmark actually received money.


I'm sorry. There is a perennial myth abroad that France lives off of EU funds. It is simply not true.


Furthermore, I knew I had struck sheer comedy gold when I stumbled upon this weird link. The numbers are directly from the lion's den: the written proceedings of the UK's House of Commons....a response to worried questions about foreign EU contributions.
Shall I call it 'What Every British Politician Secretly Knows But Is Too Scared Too Tell Britain?'