Adieu to old friends... and pay us £1bn
Britain told to make extra contribution on day it quits bloc as EU leaders issue warning over divergence
THE European Commission last night issued Britain with a bill for £1.09billion on the very evening that it finally left the EU.
Every year Brussels recalculates the contributions member states make to the EU Budget. This year, due to an increase in Gross National Income and VAT contributions, EU officials believe Britain owes an extra €1.3billion.
The demand for payment was sent to the UK embassy to the EU and the British government has been notified.
EU sources said the bill was for 201920. Britain’s payment to Brussels for 2019 was nearly £9billion pounds. If the figure is similar in 2020, it could mean Britain paying up to £10 billion in what could be its penultimate payment to the EU.
The bill will only add weight to Brexiteers’ argument that Britain is right to leave the EU because it is effectively being punished for the strength of its economy with demands for more cash to be sent to Brussels. Britain gets a rebate on its EU budget payments. The amount for the rebate, which was secured by Margaret Thatcher, is revised according to EU economic data.
Sources believe the £1.09billion bill could be halved once those revisions take effect. In 2018, the budget rebate was worth about £4billion, meaning the final bill was around £9 billion rather than £13billion.
“This bill will come down in negotiations. But the point is that we need to be in control of our own money. That’s why we’re leaving, ” said a UK government source.
The bill emerged on the last day of the EU’S long goodbye to Great Britain as Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said: “We open another chapter. It is a story of old friends and new beginnings.”
Amid the sentimentality, Brussels flashed some steel. At a joint press conference on Brexit Day, the three presidents of the EU institutions had a stark warning for Britain.
“Strength does not lie in splendid isolation, but in our unique Union,” said Ms von der Leyen, adding that the EU was “way more stronger than any single country”. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said: “If the UK decides to diverge from EU standards, it will have less access to the single market.”
Brexit had forged a new unity among the remaining 27 member states, the leaders said. Mr Michel said. In truth, Brexit is the only thing the EU has been able to consistently agree on.
Mr Michel said the European Project would continue and reform. It would cut red tape and impenetrable bureaucratic jargon and get closer to its citizens, he said. Old Brussels hands in the press pack rolled their eyes. They have heard this many, many times before.
In Brussels, the capital of the EU, no one was in the mood to celebrate Britain leaving after 47 years of EU membership. Well, almost no one. Ann Widdecombe, the Brexit Party MEP, was ebullient as she led her fellow Brexit Party MEPS “in formation” out of the European Parliament at 9am local time.
“We believe Britain can now go forward into a future rejoicing,” she said after marching out accompanied by a Union flag and a bagpiper. “Our duty is done, our harvest is home, and now we’re off.” “Don’t come back,” bellowed one EU official as Miss Widdecombe boarded a taxi.
Scottish National Party MEPS were also piped out of the parliament to the strains of Flower of Scotland and Ode to Joy, the EU’S anthem.
UK diplomats and officials were wished the best of luck as they attended their final EU meetings and posed for goodbye photos. British flags were lowered inside the Justus Lipsuis and Europa buildings, where EU summits are held, at about 7.15pm. They will be kept in case a British prime minister visits.
Britain may be leaving the EU, but one of the UK’S best-loved institutions will live on in the Council. Officials plan to display all of Telegraph cartoonist Matt’s Brexit-themed work in the staff kitchen for officials working on future UK-EU trade deals.
There was a discreet drinks party at
‘If the UK decides to diverge from EU standards, it will have less access to the single market’
the UK representation to the EU, effectively Britain’s embassy to the bloc. The UK diplomats lowered the EU flag that flies alongside the Union flag outside without fanfare. It was taken down at 5.35pm, before the UK’S flag was raised again to fly alone.
The European Parliament felt like it was nursing a hangover. Farewell parties, including a ceilidh hosted by Remain-supporting MEPS and a drinks party in a square favoured by MEPS’ assistants were held on Thursday. More drinks will be had in Brussels tonight, with one bash advertised with the slogan “F--- Brexit, We’ll be back”.
Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council, tweeted: “My dear British friends. We were, we are, and we will always be a community. And no Brexit will ever change that.”
Such goodwill was in short supply yesterday when British staffers at the Tory-founded European Conservatives and Reformists Group were told they would lose their jobs.
The posts have been earmarked for Polish members of the Law and Justice party, now the dominant European Parliament group. In Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice announced that the UK’S three British judges were stepping down.
After Brexit at midnight, the parliament’s protocol service hauled down the Union flag that has flown outside its Brussels seat for more than 20 years.