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27 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
http://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/news/uk-finland-scolded-by-eu-over-budget-deficits/
The UK was given a new deadline to deal with its excessive deficit procedure (EDP) and Finland was warned it could be placed in EDP under the stability and growth pact today (13 May). The news came as part of the Commission’s country-specific economic policy recommendations for 2015 and 2016.
The UK budget will remain under Brussels oversight for a further two years after it breached deficit targets. Despite widespread spending cuts Britain failed to reduce its deficit to below 3% – the maximum allowed under EU law.
“These recommendations are not about Brussels lecturing governments,” said EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici. “They are about encouraging national efforts to deliver the jobs and growth we collectively need.” Since the global financial crisis in 2008 the EU has increased its oversight powers to stop a repeat of the sovereign debt crisis that engulfed the continent.
Sanctions for non-eurozone Britain limited
The EU cannot impose fines or sanctions on the UK because it is not a member of the eurozone. The announcement will however be politically embarrassing for Prime Minister David Cameron, who won last week’s general election on a platform of controlling the public finances to ensure sustainable growth.
The move will also provide fodder for the right wing of Cameron’s Conservative party who want the UK to leave the European Union and will see this as unwelcome oversight from Brussels.
snip
this next article shows that IF the UK actually had to do (it has an exemption) what the EU orders all Eurozone countries to do, austerity would be even WORSE
The U.K. Has Been Violating the EU’s Economic Rules for Years
http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/06/11/the-u-k-has-been-violating-the-eus-economic-rules-for-years/
The EU’s Stability and Growth Pact is the centerpiece of the bloc’s economic rulebook. It requires EU governments to hold their deficits to under 3% of annual gross domestic product. If deficits exceed that threshold, governments must prepare plans to bring their deficits under 3% in the “medium term” – an undefined period that the EU loves since it is neither too soon nor too late. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has the power to propose sanctions on governments that don’t comply.
There’s a footnote here. The U.K. has an exemption from a section of the pact that would allow Brussels to impose sanctions. Nevertheless, it has agreed to “endeavor to avoid an excessive government deficit.” It’s kind of an obligation, but completely toothless. So has Mr. Cameron’s government been endeavoring as required by the rules?
Is the failure due to events beyond its control? Again, no, says the commission:
….based on the Commission forecast, the (corrected) change in the structural balance over 2010-2014 falls short by on average 0.6% of GDP per year compared to the requirement and is projected to fall short in 2015 as well…. [A]dditional measures are needed to ensure compliance with the recommendation under the excessive deficit procedure.
The EU made the same complaint to the U.K. last year and the year before that. But because of its exemption from sanctions, the U.K. can disregard this part of the Stability and Growth Pact without consequences.
snip
even with Tory austerity (again LESS than what the EU wants), the UK is still running the 2nd highest deficit in the EU, imagine how bad the austerity would be if the EU had actual operational control of the structural deficit
here is the EU dominated IMF getting involved years ago in pushing regressive VAT increases that will hurt minorities, the poor, and children the most
VAT should be imposed on food and children's clothes, says IMF
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7726644/VAT-should-be-imposed-on-food-and-childrens-clothes-says-IMF.html
In an unusual intervention, the IMF said one of the best ways for the coalition Government to raise money and repair the public finances would be to remove the zero-rate that excluded a number of goods from VAT.
The recommendation came amid suspicion that the Government would also have to raise the level of the sales tax from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent if it was to afford the tax pledges it made in its agreement earlier this week.
Although the IMF's suggestion, published in a comprehensive survey of public finances around the world, was less eye-catching than raising the headline rate, it would potentially have a greater impact on the price of goods, and on families' living standards.
snip
and finally here is the EU demanding an EXTRA £2.1 billion from the UK for FY 2015 , on top of its £19.2 billion gross dues (£14.35 billion after rebate) it already paid
Britain will have to pay extra €2.1bn into EU budget by December
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/23/uk-european-commission-eu-budget-contribution
Britain has been told it must pay an extra €2.1bn (£1.7bn) into the European Union budget by the end of next month because the UK economy is doing better relative to other European economies. The demand is certain to be used against David Cameron by the growing camp who want the UK to quit the EU.
British and European commission officials confirmed that the Treasury had been told last week that budget contribution calculations based on gross national income (GNI) adjustments carried out by Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, had exposed a huge discrepancy between what Britain had been asked to contribute and what it should be paying, because of the UK’s recovery.
The bombshell, first reported by the Financial Times, was dropped into the middle of an EU summit in Brussels where Cameron and 27 other leaders were mired in tough negotiations over climate-change policy and attempts to agree big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
A Downing Street source said: “It’s not acceptable to just change the fees for previous years and demand them back at a moment’s notice. The European commission was not expecting this money and does not need this money and we will work with other countries similarly affected to do all we can to challenge this.”
snip
The UK was given a new deadline to deal with its excessive deficit procedure (EDP) and Finland was warned it could be placed in EDP under the stability and growth pact today (13 May). The news came as part of the Commission’s country-specific economic policy recommendations for 2015 and 2016.
The UK budget will remain under Brussels oversight for a further two years after it breached deficit targets. Despite widespread spending cuts Britain failed to reduce its deficit to below 3% – the maximum allowed under EU law.
“These recommendations are not about Brussels lecturing governments,” said EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici. “They are about encouraging national efforts to deliver the jobs and growth we collectively need.” Since the global financial crisis in 2008 the EU has increased its oversight powers to stop a repeat of the sovereign debt crisis that engulfed the continent.
Sanctions for non-eurozone Britain limited
The EU cannot impose fines or sanctions on the UK because it is not a member of the eurozone. The announcement will however be politically embarrassing for Prime Minister David Cameron, who won last week’s general election on a platform of controlling the public finances to ensure sustainable growth.
The move will also provide fodder for the right wing of Cameron’s Conservative party who want the UK to leave the European Union and will see this as unwelcome oversight from Brussels.
snip
this next article shows that IF the UK actually had to do (it has an exemption) what the EU orders all Eurozone countries to do, austerity would be even WORSE
The U.K. Has Been Violating the EU’s Economic Rules for Years
http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/06/11/the-u-k-has-been-violating-the-eus-economic-rules-for-years/
The EU’s Stability and Growth Pact is the centerpiece of the bloc’s economic rulebook. It requires EU governments to hold their deficits to under 3% of annual gross domestic product. If deficits exceed that threshold, governments must prepare plans to bring their deficits under 3% in the “medium term” – an undefined period that the EU loves since it is neither too soon nor too late. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has the power to propose sanctions on governments that don’t comply.
There’s a footnote here. The U.K. has an exemption from a section of the pact that would allow Brussels to impose sanctions. Nevertheless, it has agreed to “endeavor to avoid an excessive government deficit.” It’s kind of an obligation, but completely toothless. So has Mr. Cameron’s government been endeavoring as required by the rules?
Not really, the commission said last week when it released its annual recommendations for the EU’s 28 governments. Way back in December 2009, the European Council agreed that the U.K. should bring its deficit under 3% of GDP by the 2014-2015 fiscal year. The U.K. deficit this year is forecast at 5% of GDP.
Is the failure due to events beyond its control? Again, no, says the commission:
….based on the Commission forecast, the (corrected) change in the structural balance over 2010-2014 falls short by on average 0.6% of GDP per year compared to the requirement and is projected to fall short in 2015 as well…. [A]dditional measures are needed to ensure compliance with the recommendation under the excessive deficit procedure.
Consider that the commission estimates that by the end of this year, the U.K. will have cut its “structural balance” – the actual budget balance adjusted for the strength of the economy and one-off measures – by 4.1 percentage points since the end of 2009. To comply with the EU rules, the commission said another 3 percentage points of cuts would have been needed. That’s a lot of extra austerity for the sake of “endeavoring to avoid an excessive government deficit.”
The EU made the same complaint to the U.K. last year and the year before that. But because of its exemption from sanctions, the U.K. can disregard this part of the Stability and Growth Pact without consequences.
There’s some irony in this. Mr. Cameron has been roundly criticized for adopting austerity policies even when the government had the ability to borrow at record low levels. And he’s argued that Brussels has too much control over decisions that are best left to national governments. Yet despite the Stability and Growth Pact, the U.K. appears to have maintained most of its independence on fiscal policy – in this case, probably to the benefit of employment and GDP.
snip
even with Tory austerity (again LESS than what the EU wants), the UK is still running the 2nd highest deficit in the EU, imagine how bad the austerity would be if the EU had actual operational control of the structural deficit
here is the EU dominated IMF getting involved years ago in pushing regressive VAT increases that will hurt minorities, the poor, and children the most
VAT should be imposed on food and children's clothes, says IMF
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7726644/VAT-should-be-imposed-on-food-and-childrens-clothes-says-IMF.html
In an unusual intervention, the IMF said one of the best ways for the coalition Government to raise money and repair the public finances would be to remove the zero-rate that excluded a number of goods from VAT.
The recommendation came amid suspicion that the Government would also have to raise the level of the sales tax from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent if it was to afford the tax pledges it made in its agreement earlier this week.
Although the IMF's suggestion, published in a comprehensive survey of public finances around the world, was less eye-catching than raising the headline rate, it would potentially have a greater impact on the price of goods, and on families' living standards.
snip
and finally here is the EU demanding an EXTRA £2.1 billion from the UK for FY 2015 , on top of its £19.2 billion gross dues (£14.35 billion after rebate) it already paid
Britain will have to pay extra €2.1bn into EU budget by December
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/23/uk-european-commission-eu-budget-contribution
Britain has been told it must pay an extra €2.1bn (£1.7bn) into the European Union budget by the end of next month because the UK economy is doing better relative to other European economies. The demand is certain to be used against David Cameron by the growing camp who want the UK to quit the EU.
British and European commission officials confirmed that the Treasury had been told last week that budget contribution calculations based on gross national income (GNI) adjustments carried out by Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, had exposed a huge discrepancy between what Britain had been asked to contribute and what it should be paying, because of the UK’s recovery.
The bombshell, first reported by the Financial Times, was dropped into the middle of an EU summit in Brussels where Cameron and 27 other leaders were mired in tough negotiations over climate-change policy and attempts to agree big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
A Downing Street source said: “It’s not acceptable to just change the fees for previous years and demand them back at a moment’s notice. The European commission was not expecting this money and does not need this money and we will work with other countries similarly affected to do all we can to challenge this.”
snip
