There is a neat graphic in today's Times - net recipients and contributers to the EU budget before and after rebate. (Data from pre-enlargement days so only 15 states represented.)
But wait! What's this looming on the horizon? Could it be a massive post-enlargement budget re-negotiation 25 car pile-up?
Next week's meeting of finance ministers is already being billed as the final show-down over Britain's 3.1bn pound rebate and nothing gets people's emotions up like an argument about good old-fashioned cash. The scene will probably unfold broadly as follows:
New member state: Hey Britain, you got that rebate in 1984 when you were poor, now you are rich. Give it back. France: Yeah! Britain: Watch it France, how do you fancy handing back some of those farming subisidies, eh? eh? Eurosceptic British press: Fight! Fight! Fight!
What Europe needs is a Mrs McCluskey to come along and knock heads together. But then I suppose that was what the Constitution was for. The constitution that is now sitting in the council recycling box of history to be taken away and, in all probability, discreetly dumped in a land fill site somewhere once everyone realises it is made out of non-biodegradable legal polymers.
