Subject: EU membership costs
Date of disclosure: 12th January 2005
Request:
How much is being paid annually by Great Britain to the E.U. for membership.
Disclosure:
The following table sets out details of the UK’s gross and net contribution to the EC Budget for the period 1999-2000 to 2003-04 together with the Government’s latest estimate of these for 2004-05.
| Gross contribution | Abatement | Public Sector Receipts | Net contribution | |
| 1999-2000 | 9,207 | -2,206 | -3,676 | 3,325 |
| 2000-01 | 10,640 | -2,223 | -4,099 | 4,318 |
| 2001-02 | 9,213 | -4,427 | -4,099 | 1,477 |
| 2002-03 | 9,737 | -3,233 | -3,424 | 3,080 |
| 2003-04 | 11,371 | -3,874 | -4,232 | 3,264 |
| 2004-05 | 11,844 | -3,660 | -5,586 | 2,598 |
In addition to the receipts figures given in the table, the EC also make some payments direct to the UK private sector. The current estimate of the value of these receipts is around £425 million.
In addition, the Government publishes an annual White Paper entitled European Community Finances which includes details of UK contributions to, abatement, and public sector receipts from the EC Budget for both financial and calendar years. The latest in the series was published on 22 April 2004 (Cm 6134 ISBN 0-10-161342-3) and can be found on the HM Treasury website: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk. Less detailed figures showing just the UK’s net contribution, rounded to the nearest £0.1 billion, are also included in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s pre-Budget Report, published in the autumn, and Financial Statement and Budget Report, published in the spring.