EU REFERENDUM
- COSTS OF MEMBERSHIP

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SOUND-BITE FACTS   -   COSTS OF EU MEMBERSHIP
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TRUTH ABOUT COSTS OF
EU MEMBERSHIP
£50m/day? £350m/week? How much does our EU membership really cost?
 
TRUTH ABOUT EU FINANCES
& THEIR ACCOUNTS
The EU's accounts haven't been signed off by its auditors for 20 years
 
£50 MILLION PER DAY? £350 MILLION PER WEEK?        ARE YOU CONFUSED?
Here's the best explanation you'll find about the costs of our EU membership!
Here are 2 basic facts from the Government's independent Office for Budget Responsibility, Mar 2016:-
  • Our total gross contribution to the EU in 2016 will be £20.3 BILLION

    - That's roughly £390 million per week or £56 million per day.
    This is the full notional amount, without taking off the UK's rebate (which could be
    removed in the future) or making any other adjustments.
  • Our 'discounted total' (or 'net contribution') will be £14.5 BILLION

    - That's roughly £279 million per week or £40 million per day.
    Broadly, this is the total we pay after taking off sums we currently get back.
Remainers (including the BBC) say the EU costs us £8.4 BILLION - Why?

There are adjustments one can make - up and down - depending on what you include.
The Remain campaign, the BBC, and Mr Cameron choose to take off various sums, but then they fail to include extras. And they and the BBC are using figures from 2014.
Our figures above come from the Government's independent Office for Budget Responsibility - the reputable source - and are for 2016.
WE BELIEVE IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT OUR EU MEMBERSHIP WILL COST THE UK
OVER £10 BILLION THIS YEAR.
(And even if it were £8.4 billion, that's still a huge annual membership fee.)
[Source: Official OBR Tables : March 2016 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.]
 
Basics about EU finances & corruption
1. The EU says its budget for 2016 is €155 billion. This was adopted on 25 November 2015, when the European Parliament confirmed the agreement. The European Parliament is the one which was elected in May 2014 when only a third of us (35.6%) voted.

2. This is only the notional cost of the EU government on top of the normal costs of running each country, which are accounted for separately by the governments of each country.

3. 20 years of EU's audited accounts being 'qualified'. This means the auditors couldn't approve them normally and had to caveat them. Here's what HM Treasury had to say in 2015 about the latest (2013) set of EU accounts:

"For the twentieth consecutive year, the ECA [European Court of Auditors] granted a qualified DAS ['Déclaration d'Assurance’] with regards to the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the EU budget accounts." "the ECA found that payments (EU spending) continued to be affected by material error with an estimated error rate of 4.7 per cent for the 2013 EU Budget as a whole".

So, the ECA (the auditors) have been unable to sign off the EU's accounts without qualifying their report, for 20 consecutive years. In everyday language, "signed off" means "signed off normally, without qualification".

4. Corruption: “The economic costs of corruption in the EU were estimated by a study conducted for the Commission to amount to approximately 120 billion Euros a year (the equivalent of 1% of the EU GDP)," says the EU Commission Press Release.

5. It goes on to say: "Corruption in the area of public procurement is a clear barrier to competition in the internal market. Studies have shown that about 20 to 25% of the public contracts’ value is lost to corruption.”

The Failing EU Is Out Of Control - This Is Not a Safe Club To Be A Member Of
[Sources: EU Council website EU budget for 2016 | EU Commission Press Release MEMO/12/105 | EU Parliament website, 2014 elections | HM Treasury's 'European Union Finances 2015: statement on the 2015 EU Budget and measures to counter fraud and financial mismanagement' | ECA (European Court of Auditors): http://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/ecadefault.aspx]
COSTS OF EU MEMBERSHIP
FACTS ABOUT EU FINANCES, UK CONTRIBUTIONS, EU ACCOUNTS
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