Those of a nervous disposition or possible heart failure should read this with caution!

 

Annual Cost of the EU

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

2006
Annual contribution to E.U.  £13 bn     
Refunds from E.U.   £8.7bn
Cost to us for membership  £4.3bn.
Plus    Common Agricultural Policy  £15bn
            Common Fisheries Policy        £1 bn
            Paid to E.U. Institutions     £1.8 bn 
Total Cost of membership   £22.1 bn in 2006 

2006
Export to E.U. £120 bn
Imports from E.U. £203 bn
Trade deficit with E.U. in 2006 £83 bn
Trade surplus with rest of world in 2006 £5.7 bn
For which we pay no membership 'fee'!.

EU Regulation - £100bn pa
The annual cost of EU regulations to industry, together with the cost the government quangos who enforce them, is now £100 billion per annum or 10% of our economy, according to the Government's Better Regulation Task Force. David Arculus, its Managing Director says EU regulation is now our biggest industry (larger than tourism at £67 bn.)

This ties in with the EU Commission's Annual Report on Competitiveness, where they state regulation averages 12% of EU economies. So both the British and EU governments agree on this figure.

EU contributions and CAP £23 bn
Our £5bn net annual contribution is now increased, by the loss of our £3bn rebate, to £8 billion. The Common Agricultural Policy CAP costs us £15bn, total £23bn.

The loss of industries to the EU; a lot more than £5 bn
From Petrol stations to car paint shops, abbatoirs, the Rover Car company. We have no figures, except for fishing, £5 billion. We also have no figures for metrication, or the cost of administering the EU's VAT.

Government figures on total Cost of the EU = £128 bn
£100bn +£23bn, +£5bn = £128 bn /365 days = £342 million/day. £128bn /28m workers = £4,500pa.

Cost of being part of the EU's failing economy: 0.8% GDP per annum, £80 bn
But this excludes the cost to GDP of associating with Europe's slow growth (1.8%, down to 1.2% in the last quarter) instead of the much faster Commonwealth's growth (3.4% versus our 2.6% =0.8% x our £1 trillion GDP = £80 billion).

Government + Economist's figures 128bn + 80 bn = £208 billion, or 20% of our economy.

£208 billion per annum = £570 million per day. More than half a billion a day.

The EU costs every person in Britain £3,350 per year.

£208 billion divided by the British working population of 28 million = £7,400 per working salary. (or £3.70 per working hour).

That's why people in outlying counties earn only £5 per hour - Europe has sucked the wealth out of the economy before it even gets to us.

Mathematical cost of 33 Years in the EU = £208/2 x 33= £3,432 billion.

The total cost of the EU to date is probably £3.4 trillion.

Trading with the EU costs us £22 bn on our balance of payments
Britain made a profit trading with the EU 30 years ago, before we joined. Now EU regulations have fixed it so we lose £22bn trading with them annually, straight off our balance of payments. We should leave, and make a profit out of them again. Europe is taking British jobs and selling product to us and making money out of us. Not that we would want this, but We would be economically better off if we ceased all trade with Europe; we would have more jobs, and enjoy the surpluses we still have with the rest of the world.

References

A Cost Too Far? published by Civitas, £15bn CAP, £5bn net annual contribution.
Eurostat put Europe's growth at 1.8% at 30th Sept 2004. The next quarter was an annual rate of 1.2% and its still falling.

 

The BRTF is now renamed the Better Regulation Commission. Its 2005 Annual Report -Better Regulation from Design to Delivery repeats the conclusion it has often made elesewhere: The Managing Director, David Arculus's states in his foreward, page 2, that regulation costs us £100 billion pa. Tony Blair's page 6 forward to the government's BRC's report confirms beyond all doubt these are government figures. www.brc.gov.uk/downloads/pdf/designdelivery.pdf

In a Parliamentary answer to Lord Stoddart in January 2003, the government (Lady Symons, Deputy Leader of the Lords) admitted there were 101,811 EU regulations from 1972 up to August 2002. (13 January 2003, Lords Written Answers, "EC Regulations", Hansard, Volume No. 643). EU regulations are arriving at the rate of 3,500 a year, so about 113,500 regulations now.

The number of British regulations not inspired by the EU is less than 5% of the total.

The £100 billion these regulations cost us is cash, paid out by industry implementing these regulations, and paid by the government, enforcing them. Regulation is 12% of the EU economies - the reference is the EU Commission's Annual Report on Competitiveness: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/doc/comprep_2004_en.pdf

The EU trade deficit is a simple matter: We were lied to there would be "trade benefits" if we joined the EU. We had an even balance of trade before we joined the EU - we lost nothing.

Now we've been in for 33 years we lose £22 billion a year in hard cash by trading with the EU - this is not what we were promised.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2004 we had a trade deficit with the EU of £22.1 billion a year http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/PinkBook2005.pdf, figure 9.3. Its now higher, running at £2.9 billion for the month of December 2005 alone, acording to the Office for National Statistics, and reported by the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4696312.stm That's £34 billion a year if it stays at this level, and its growing, not falling.