Yahoo Finance Brexit is a ‘game changer’ for EU spending, says EC
Cuts to the EU’s most important programmes have been made unavoidable by the UK’s departure, according to the man in charge of the bloc’s budget.
EU Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger described Brexit as a “game changer” as he came under fire for over his plans during a debate in the European Parliament.
The UK is the EU’s second largest financial contributor and its exit next year will cost Brussels £8.8bn-a-year. Member states are being asked to pay more into the first post-Brexit EU budget as a consequence, but Oettinger has also proposed cuts to the bloc’s two most expensive policies.
The Common Agricultural Policy, which supports farmers, and the Cohesion Policy, aimed at reducing regional inequality, currently account for more than 70% of EU spending.
MORE: EU plan to make members pay more after Brexit meets resistance
Both face cuts of 5% under Oettinger’s plans for EU spending between 2021 and 2027 – plans which were slammed as “unacceptable” when he faced MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday. But he told critics: “I’ll say this openly to you: If a big net contributor, if a big economy like the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, it is a game changer.
“You cannot simply pretend that all of the programmes are going to be exactly the same. Plus a few extra tasks. Plus a few extra priorities with more investment.
“That’s why we have limited cut backs without damaging cohesion and agriculture. But cuts are necessary. Anything else simply is not realism.”
Oettinger argued that it is unreasonable for German or Polish farmers to expect to receive subsidies which previously would have gone to UK farmers. He insisted though that there will be no cuts to one project which has become a political football in the Brexit process – the Galileo satellite navigation system.
Oettinger said the project “is going to be more expensive” with just 27 member states, but added: “It’s important so that’s why there’s no cut backs there.”
Conservative MEP Ashley Fox said allowing the UK to continue play a full part in the Galileo project after Brexit would save the EU money as well as improve security cooperation.
MORE: Britain to demand £1bn back from EU in Brexit satellite row
He also launched an attack on UKIP MEP Nigel Farage, who he accused of coming to the parliament to “annoy and provoke you and damage the interests of the United Kingdom.”
Farage told the parliament the EU’s budget black hole “isn’t going to be as bad as you thought it was going to be” because of the Brexit divorce bill.
“The £40bn that Mrs May has agreed to pay over the course of the next few years must help,” he said in an attack on the prime minister’s Brexit agreement.
“As we speak she’s desperately scrambling to get us back in to a whole series of EU programmes in your next budgetary period. And no doubt we’ll pay more for that.”