Denmark's prime minister has poured cold water on Britain's hopes of reducing an extra €2.1 billion contribution to EU budgets being demanded by the European Commission, insisting that "countries must follow the rules as they are".
Britain's prime minister David Cameron has responded with fury to the demand, telling the House of Commons the UK would not pay "anything like" that amount.
But EU budget commissioner Jacek Dominik warned that Britain would be opening a "Pandora's box" – including possible reconsideration of its annua €3.8 billion rebate – if it sought to renegotiate.
The €2.1 billion surcharge arises from a revised calculation of Britain’s gross national income to bring it into line with EU norms.
Senior British diplomats were in talks in Brussels yesterday on the bill, and chancellor George Osborne is expected to raise it with fellow EU finance ministers including Germany’s Wolfgang Schäuble in the margins of an OECD forum in Berlin today.
Mr Cameron secured agreement at last week's European Council for the issue to be discussed at a scheduled meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on November 7th.
But Denmark’s prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt played down the prospect of any exception, telling the Bloomberg news agency: “I respect that the UK wants to discuss this among ministers, but there are rules that must be kept. Countries must follow the rules as they are.”
The UK’s surcharge was based on “statistical models” which meant that “some countries pay and others receive”, she said, adding: “You’ve got to follow the rules.”
Denmark is one of the winners from the adjustments and is in line to receive €321.4 million.
The changes resulted from a reassessment of national incomes carried out by statistics authorities in each of the 28 member states, and led to large demands for extra money from Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece, while countries like France and Germany stand to gain to the tune of hundreds of millions of euro.– (PA)