Vote puppet - get puppet.
Cameron can't halt rise in Euro budget: PM admits jump of at least £430m is out of his hands
(And he's not even going to try to stop a new EU treaty or give us a referendum on it)
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:03 AM on 28th October 2010
* Comments (304)
* Add to My Stories
* France and Germany call for changes to Lisbon Treaty
* Lawyers divided on need for fresh country referendums
* UKIP: PM trying to 'wriggle out of referendum promise'
* Cameron admits he's powerless to stop budget hikes
David Cameron has been forced to admit today there is nothing he can do to stop British taxpayers footing a multimillion-pound hike in the EU budget - despite his demands the runaway bill be reined in.
The Prime Minister is powerless to prevent the budget soaring by at least 2.9 per cent - equivalent to an extra £429million from the UK - after failing to gain support from other EU members.
The rise could even be as high as 6 per cent, at a time when public services in Britain are being slashed in a bid to cut the deficit.
But Mr Cameron is also coming under fresh pressure to hold an EU referendum after France and Germany demanded embarrassing changes to the infamous Lisbon Treaty - barely a year after it was finally approved.
Not so tough: David Cameron at PMQs yesterday was forced to admit that taxpayers will have to pay more to the EU budget
Not so tough: David Cameron at PMQs yesterday was forced to admit that taxpayers will have to pay more to the EU budget
Mr Cameron - who will travel to Brussels today to sign up to the budget deal - has been keen to deflect attention away from the treaty changes by focusing on EU spending.
But British Eurosceptics clamouring for a referendum on the EU are demanding any changes be put to UK voters and have accused Mr Cameron of 'making schoolboy promises on Europe he knows he cannot keep'.
Nigel Farage from the UK Independence Party said: 'Britain will continue to fund the megalomaniacal ambitions of the European Union, and this government like the last will wriggle out of its promises for a referendum. Yet again you cannot trust the Conservatives on Europe', he said.
Downing Street sources have indicated Mr Cameron would consider trading Britain’s agreement to a Franco-German plan for a treaty amendment in return for a budget cap.
But he will only agree as long as the amended treaty did not apply to the UK as this would break an election pledge that new treaties should be subject to a referendum.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said changes are needed to tighten rules on bailing out any member states which may face a Greek-style economic meltdown and to toughen sanctions against those who breach EU single currency debt and deficit rules.
More...
* No U-turn over housing benefit: Cameron refuses to back down over cap amid 'social cleansing claims'
* Small firms' pension outcry: Businesses with just two staff forced to fund new pension schemes
After the signing last year, then prime minister Gordon Brown said there should be no more EU treaty changes for at least a decade and president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said it was time to end 'institutional navel-gazing' in Europe.
Now, to their embarrassment, many EU leaders face pressure from Berlin and Paris to agree to reopen the treaty in the wake of the economic crisis.
Although Britain is not affected by sanctions against eurozone countries, a helpless British government official said that 'treaty change is not where we would want to be at this time'.
'We would not go along with any changes which would amount to a transfer of more powers to Brussels, but eurozone economic sanctions do not apply to us.
'On the other hand, 40 per cent of our exports are to the eurozone member states and it is important to us that there is economic stability in the eurozone so we support whatever measures are necessary (to maintain stability)', the official added.
EU and national lawyers are at odds over whether Mrs Merkel's planned changes can be agreed without reopening the treaty or the need for referendums in member states.
If not, MEPs would certainly demand a new 'convention' to give them a voice in any changes, and the procedural in-fighting which has blighted the Union for years would continue.
Minister for Europe David Liddington played down the prospect of any treaty change.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It's very far from clear there is a consensus even with the eurozone countries for a treaty change.
'We are not going to sign up to any treaty change that transfers powers from the United Kingdom to Brussels institutions.'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy
New treaty: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy will today pushed for changes to the Lisbon agreement to help protect the euro
In an interview with the Mail last week, Mr Cameron described a 6 per cent rise in the EU budget as ‘completely irresponsible and unacceptable’.
‘We need an alliance to block increases,’ he said. ‘I think the French will also be keen on budget restraint and we should push this extremely hard.’
But Downing Street has admitted there was little or no chance of persuading other countries to agree to a freeze or a cut for 2011.
Mr Cameron is still pushing for a lower increase, and is demanding a cut or a freeze after 2014, when the next long-term spending review begins.
He told MPs it was ‘completely unacceptable’ for EU spending to relentlessly rise when individual countries are slashing their own budgets.
But when he travels to Brussels today he will be forced to sign up to a deal which will see the UK’s contributions increasing dramatically in 2011.
All EU finance ministers, including Britain’s, had agreed in August the budget rise would be 2.9 per cent. This was later overturned by the European Parliament, which demanded a 5.9 per cent increase.
Mr Cameron spoke to EU leaders including the German Chancellor to try to win support.
He already has the backing of Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic – who all agree the rise should be far less than 6 per cent. The leaders will be meeting at the summit in Brussels over new budget rules to prevent another Greek-style crisis in the Eurozone.
During Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, Mr Cameron said: ‘The greatest priority for Britain should be to fight very hard to get the EU budget under control. It is completely unacceptable at a time when we are making tough budget decisions here we are seeing spending rise consistently in the European Union.
U-turn: Only last week, David Cameron was talking tough when it came the EU cash
U-turn: Only last week, David Cameron was talking tough when it came to the EU cash
‘I think that is wrong, and I am going to be doing everything I can to try and sort out the budget for next year.’
As the Prime Minister was yesterday pledging to fight the rise, it emerged the EU is to spend £10million to lease a grand new headquarters in Brussels for its new diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service.
Some 7,000 civil servants are to move into the Triangle building to run the department, which will have a budget of £5.8billion a year. Labour backbencher Kate Hoey said the British public did not want to see a ‘single penny more’ given to the EU when they were facing cuts at home. ‘Will you promise if they demand this money, ultimately we just say, “Sorry, we are not paying”,’ she asked.
Mr Cameron declined to do so, admitting he could not get any lower than the 2.9 per cent agreed in August. ‘The European Parliament has insisted on a higher budget, so the first thing we have to do is to say that is not acceptable, and build a majority on the Council to get it down again,’ he said.
Mr Cameron will also use the summit to demand changes to European budgets from 2014 to 2020, which will be thrashed out in the coming months.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mark Hoban said ministers had ‘serious concerns’ about the proposed size of the 2011 EU budget. ‘We will fight this hard,’ he said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1324401/Cameron-admits-Euro-budget-jump-430m-hands.html#ixzz13e19aULU
No comments:
Post a Comment