UK rejects ‘appalling’ EU demand for more money

BRUSSELS — Britain’s decades-long battle over the European Union budget flared up again as Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday insisted he would not pay an additional €2.1 billion (S$3.39 billion) into this year’s EU budget, calling the bloc’s demand for extra funds “completely unacceptable”.

“It is not acceptable, it is an appalling way to behave,” an angry Mr Cameron told a news conference in Brussels. “I’m not paying that bill on Dec 1. If people think I am, they’ve got another thing coming. It is not going to happen.”

EU leaders, scrambling to defuse a potentially damaging row, agreed at a summit in Brussels that their finance ministers would hold emergency talks with the executive European Commission to review the figures in the coming weeks, diplomats said.

Mr Cameron’s opposition to a top-up of about 20 per cent on its contributions was the latest instalment in a fight that dates back to the 1970s when the United Kingdom joined the bloc. This time, the argument has the potential to shift UK public opinion towards quitting the 28-nation EU.

European Commission spokesman Patrizio Fiorilli said the additional contribution was the result of a change in the way the EU calculates gross national income — a move that had previously been agreed to by all member countries — and was not politically motivated. He said the gross domestic product of Britain and the Netherlands was “a lot higher than they thought themselves at the beginning of the year, so their contributions were revised upward”.

The Netherlands has been asked for a top-up of €642 million, which Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem called “unpleasantly surprising”.

France stands to receive a rebate of €1 billion, while Germany will get €779 million. Greece would have to pay an additional €89 million.

Official figures yesterday showed that Britain’s economic recovery is continuing despite a gloomy world environment. Its GDP grew 0.7 per cent in the third quarter from the previous three months. By contrast, the euro area was forecast to have expanded only 0.2 per cent after no growth in the previous three months.

Still, the pace of growth in the UK slowed from 0.9 per cent in the second quarter and there are concerns that the weakness in the euro area, Britain’s biggest export market, will continue to weigh on the economy. Agencies