Labour MEPs today called on David Cameron and George Osborne to come clean and admit they did not win a cut in the UK's EU budget bill.
EU finance ministers, meeting in Brussels, extended the payment period of the UK's £1.7 billion (€ 2.1bn) bill to September 2015. The amount stays the same.
Clare Moody MEP, Labour's European spokesperson on the EU budget, said:
"George Osborne's much trumpeted victory is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. He is simply bringing forward the rebate that we would have received anyway to pay the bill.
"Osborne and Cameron are only really delaying payment, which certainly isn't good budget management. They want the UK to pay after the election; it will be up to Labour to rebalance the books. Not only this, they have alienated themselves still further from our allies in Europe.
"The EU isn't perfect but the EU budget supports jobs and growth projects in the UK at a time when the conservatives are making cut after cut."
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Notes to Editors
1. "Let me point out in this respect that the UK will benefit from the UK rebate for the additional payments in 2014. This will be budgeted in May 2015 when the UK rebate is recalculated." - Statement by Jacek Dominik, EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget, 27 October 2014: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-723_fr.htm
2. "The UK will pay the whole amount." - Michael Noonan, Irish Finance Minister, 7 November 2014: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-07/u-k-fails-to-win-budget-payment-cut-as-eu-defies-cameron.html
