Cameron recusa pagar 2,1 mil milhões para orçamento da UE. David Cameron kept in the dark over EU’s bill for €2.1bn.

Cameron recusa pagar 2,1 mil milhões para orçamento da UE

Raquel Almeida Correia e Maria João Guimarães / 25 out 2014 / PÚBLICO

O primeiro-ministro britânico, David Cameron, deixou ontem bem claro que o Reino Unido não pagará a contribuição adicional para o orçamento da União Europeia (UE), depois de se saber que Bruxelas vai exigir, já a 1 de Dezembro, mais 2100 milhões de euros ao país. “Não pagarei esta taxa adicional. E se alguns pensam que isso acontecerá, esperem para ver”, frisou. Cameron aproveitou para deixar um recado: “Não ajuda a presença da Grã-Bretanha na UE”, que prometeu referendar em 2017 se vencer as eleições do próximo ano.

O primeiro-ministro pediu uma “reunião de emergência” dos ministros das Finanças da UE. “Há ajustes todos os anos, uma vezes pagamos um pouco mais e outras menos. Mas nunca aconteceu termos de pagar uma conta de 2000 milhões de euros”, sublinhou, citado pela AFP. E reiterou: “Não vamos de repente passar um cheque de 2000 milhões de euros. Isso não vai acontecer”.

O timing desta revelação é péssimo para Cameron, que tem o partido populista anti-UE UKIP a subir nas sondagens e que ameaça conseguir um segundo deputado no Parlamento britânico numa eleição intercalar local, quando falta pouco mais de meio ano para as legislativas. “O sistema encoraja a não acertar para que os outros paguem a conta”, reagiu o recém-eleito de-

Primeiro-ministro britânico considera decisão “inaceitável” putado do UKIP Douglas Carswell.

Estas taxas, pagas por todos os Estados-membros, sofrem revisões anuais, tendo por base indicadores como a evolução do produto nacional bruto (PNB), que contabiliza a actividade económica de um país (excluindo as empresas estrangeiras e incluindo as empresas nacionais que operam no exterior) ou as receitas com o IVA.

No passado, apontam analistas, o Reino Unido beneficiou destes ajustes, pagando menos do que o previsto. Mais munições para os eurocépticos britânicos: Cameron fez uma intensa campanha para a redução do orçamento, e é justamente no orçamento que agora se vê penalizado. No entanto, 2014 é um ano extraordinário, fruto das alterações metodológicas introduzidas pelo Sistema Europeu de Contas, que tiveram impacto na forma como se contabiliza a actividade económica dos Estadosmembros.

Durão Barroso, prestes a deixar a presidência da Comissão Europeia, reagiu de imediato às críticas, argumentando que “não há razão para surpresas”. Na conferência de imprensa final da última cimeira em que participou, declarou que estas taxas “são calculadas com base em mecanismos a que todos [os Estadosmembros] deram o acordo”.

Os 2125,3 milhões agora exigidos ao Reino Unido somam-se aos 10.900 mil milhões pagos em 2013. A rectificação é transversal a todos os Estados-membros, como mostra um documento noticiado ontem pelo Financial Times, mas os cofres britânicos serão os mais penalizados. Aliás, apenas nove países são chamados a pagar mais, sendo que o segundo lugar na lista, que pertence à Holanda, está a uma larga distância do Reino Unido, com um extra de 642,7 milhões. O jornal britânico dá também conta da reacção negativa da Holanda, com o ministro das Finanças a criticar a forma como os países foram informados. “Não estou satisfeito”, declarou Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Pelo contrário, outros países têm direito a ser ressarcidos. É o caso da Alemanha e de França, que receberão 779,2 e 1016,3 milhões de euros, respectivamente. O mesmo acontecerá com Portugal, que, entre os países reembolsados, terá direito à verba mais pequena: 500 mil euros. Na nota onde constam estes valores, a Comissão Europeia reconhece que “está ciente de que, em alguns casos, [esta revisão] poderá ter um impacto orçamental significativo”.

O Financial Times adiantava ontem que é provável que o tema seja acrescentado à ordem de trabalhos da próxima reunião do Ecofin, agendada para 7 de Novembro. O orçamento alterado ainda tem de ser aprovado pelos 28 Governos da UE e pelo Parlamento Europeu, diz o diário britânico The Guardian, pelo que poderá ser alterado se Londres conseguir aliados — e conseguirá algum apoio entre Governos que não querem dar argumentos aos que defendem a saída do Reino Unido da UE.

David Cameron kept in the dark over EU’s bill for €2.1bn

PM denounces conduct of European commission as he admits Osborne knew of demand for cash two days before he did

Ian Traynor in Brussels, Rajeev Syal and Rowena Mason

The Guardian, Friday 24 October 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/24/david-cameron-in-dark-eu-bill-2bn-george-osborne

David Cameron admitted that he had been left in the dark by George Osborne for two days as he complained that he had been hijacked by Brussels over an unexpected demand to pay £1.7bn (€2.1bn) to the EU.

The prime minister said he would refuse to comply with the sudden bill, which he first learned about on Thursday, but questions were raised about Whitehall’s competence once it emerged that the chancellor had known since Tuesday. Labour said ministers should have expected the higher bill months ago.

At a press conference in Brussels, with Cameron’s face growing increasingly red as he became more and more animated, the prime minister denounced the conduct of the European commission. “It’s a €2bn bill. It gets presented with a month to go,” he said. “That is not an acceptable way to behave and it’s not an acceptable sum of money.”

Asked to explain why he had been left in the dark by the Treasury, Cameron replied: “You want to know the ‘who knew what whens’ and all the rest of it but actually, frankly, you don’t need a Cluedo set to know that someone has been clubbed with the lead piping in the library.”

The demand comes as Cameron is wrestling with dilemmas over Britain’s future in Europe and making increasingly Eurosceptic gestures to the restless backbenchers who want to deal with Nigel Farage’s Europe rejectionists. It comes weeks before a crucial byelection in Rochester and Strood, Kent, in which Ukip is fighting for its second parliamentary seat and with Cameron under increasing pressure by his party’s right to leave the EU.

The prime minister sought to regain control by blaming the EU. “It is an unacceptable way for this organisation to work – to suddenly present a bill like this for such a vast sum of money with so little time to pay it. And it is an unacceptable way to treat one of the biggest contributors to the European Union. It is an appalling way to behave. I am not paying that bill on 1 December. If people think I am they have got another think coming.”

European commission president José Manuel Barroso said the call for an additional payment should not have come as a surprise to Britain as member states’ contributions were adjusted in this way each year in the autumn. “Sometimes countries have to give more money. Sometimes they receive much more money,” he said.

A few hours later , as the prime minister visited the constituency of Rochester and Strood, Cameron signalled he might be prepared to compromise.

Asked if Britain would eventually pay up, he suggested that a lower sum could be acceptable. “If it is two billion euros, no we are not.

“That is not acceptable. We do have these changes where they look at how economies have grown. Sometimes you pay a little bit more, sometimes you pay a little bit less. But it has never happened like this before, with a €2bn bill,” he said.

The timescale for the bill from Brussels was unclear, with senior EU officials supplying confusing and inconsistent information about the basis for the calculations. Cameron said the €2.1bn referred to recalculated dues for the last four years, but the paperwork sent to the Treasury by the commission in the past few days talked of a timeframe of 1995-2013.

Other countries landed with big bills – though nowhere the scale of Britain’s – such as Italy and the Netherlands were also nonplussed and demanding explanations from Brussels.

But agreement to reduce or waive the payments may prove difficult, as some other major EU states stand to benefit to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros – with France expecting €1bn (£800m) and Germany €779m (£614m).

Labour said the row showed that Cameron was now “isolated, one foot out of the door, and ignored” in Europe and accused him of failing to act quickly enough.

The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, said the Treasury must have known about the surcharge for “weeks and weeks and weeks” and asked: “What has our prime minister been doing? I mean, how could he suddenly be surprised about this?”

Labour’s new shadow Europe minister, Pat McFadden, said last night that he had found evidence that ministers must have been aware of the upcoming changes five months ago when they were sent an Office for National Statistics report which stated that growth figures would be used in a recalculation of Britain’s contribution to the EU budget.

“Did the Ggovernment delay making news public about this expected revision to the UK’s EU contribution because of fears about how it would play out for the Conservative party?” he said.

The commission told the member countries of the revamped figures on 17 October, EU officials said. Osborne told reporters that he first knew about the bill on Tuesday. But Cameron says he was only told on Thursday.

An emergency meeting of EU finance ministers has been convened to examine details of the recalculated budget contributions. The argument is that in the reference period, based on a new way of calculating gross national income, the UK has been outperforming the rest of the EU by some distance. Elements of the hidden economy, such as drugs and prostitution, have been included in the calculations for the first time. Budget officials from the EU member states are to meet next week in Venice and EU finance ministers meet on 7 November. The issue looks likely to dominate either or both meetings.

Farage described the EU as “a thirsty vampire feasting on UK taxpayers’ blood”, and said the prime minister was in “a very weak position” to avoid stumping up the money. “He can do nothing about this,” said the Ukip leader, whose party’s Mark Reckless, the defecting Tory MP, is the favourite to win the byelection in north Kent. “And I think he’s now being pushed into a position where, unless he brings forward his referendum promise, he’s in real political trouble.”