“As we reduce our deficits, I think it is very important that we both argue to make sure that the European budget is, over time, reduced rather than increased.” David Cameron, August 12 2010
David Cameron’s tour of duty as milk monitor at the weekend shows how, 40 years after Margaret Thatcher “snatched” free school milk, the harder edges of Thatcherism are still seen as politically toxic for the Conservatives.
However, despite the speed with which he saved free school milk for the under 5s, there’s one area of public spending where he would like to emulate Thatcher: and that’s the European Union.
As his comments today suggest, the prime minister would dearly love to follow in the Iron Lady’s footsteps and “handbag” the rest of Europe into making savage cuts to the EU budget – currently around 130bn Euros a year.
But Cameron may find it impossible to do so. Senior Whitehall sources tell me that while UK government departments are sweating to make cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent (even 50 per cent in some cases), ministers will consider themselves lucky if they manage to get agreement in Europe for a measly 10 per cent cut.
That means what we spend in Europe – on things like farming subsidies and regeneration – will effectively get the same spending protection as departments like the Ministry of Defence.
The chancellor George Osborne knows just how this will be viewed by his parliamentary colleagues. So a Treasury briefing paper doing the rounds in Whitehall says the UK should argue for the smallest possible EU budget.
The UK’s net contribution to the EU budget is £8.3bn this year. Negotiations for the next seven-year budget begin in the autumn – and agreement has to be reached among all 27 member states.
But even if we manage to persuade other net contributors like France and Germany to go for a 10 per cent cut, Cameron’s new allies in Europe, the Czechs and the Poles, will be manning the barricades. Those two countries – whose MEPs share a parliamentary grouping with the Conservatives in Europe – are two of the biggest beneficiaries from the EU budget. A senior ally of Cameron’s in Europe admits: “They won’t like it.” Not one bit.
