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Originally Posted by ianch99
Your reply gives the impression that the UK rebate can be taken away without our say so. You forgot the minor point that the UK has a veto over the process that would scrap or reduce it. The EU leaders are required to approve the MFF unanimously.
See: Reality Check: How vulnerable is the UK's rebate? |
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The level of the UK rebate is decided every seven years, as part of the EU's long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which is negotiated by the EU leaders.
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That implies it has to be
agreed afresh each time. For the 2020 agreement, everybody would have to agree the UK rebate for it to continue. If anybody disagreed, the rebate would no longer apply. If it was permanent then a decision wouldn't have to be made in order for it to continue, only for it to be stopped. A decision has to be made every 7 years, therefore it has to be
positively approved each time.
What would happen if a country insisted on vetoing the long-term budget? Everything would grind to a halt, therefore realistically no country can veto it. Just as you occasionally see in the US when the Federal budget isn't agreed with the threat of "Shutdown", which does actually happen.
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In 2012, the EP(European Parliament) called for the elimination of all existing correction mechanisms, including the UK rebate, adding that any new compensation schemes should be temporary in nature and based on objective economic criteria
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In its reports on the operation of the own resources system, the European Commission has also highlighted a number of issues related to the UK rebate and the other correction mechanisms. In 2011, for example, the Commission said that the financing system was perceived as unfair by many stakeholders, with correction mechanisms playing a significant role in this perception. The Commission added that, while the UK rebate was perfectly justifiable when it was created in the 1980s (see section above on objective, origin and legal basis), the conditions underpinning it have since changed significantly (including a reduction in the share of the EU budget spent on agriculture; a smaller share of EU revenue originating from the VAT-based resource; and an increase in the relative prosperity of the UK in terms of GNI per capita).
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In 2004 and again in 2011, the European Commission tabled proposals for reform of the own resources system.27 Both proposals included a significant overhaul of corrections, by eliminating all existing ad hoc mechanisms and introducing new provisions, to correct excessive negative budgetary balances, more in line with the principle of equal treatment. The aim was to address the above-mentioned concerns about complexity, opacity and lack of fairness that surround the existing correction mechanisms.
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Austria, Germany, Holland, and Sweden also have their own system of rebates. We had an exemption to the "Social Chapter", but look what happened with the "Working Time Directive". It was forced upon us anyway. Blair relinquished part of the Rebate, so who's to say somebody else(eg Corbyn) wouldn't do the same?