Draft European Union Budget

Part of Court of Justice of the European Union – in the House of Commons at 3:46 pm on 12 July 2012.

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Photo of Chris Heaton-Harris Chris Heaton-Harris Conservative, Daventry 3:46, 12 July 2012

Anything that saves UK taxpayers significant sums of money I deem worthy of further investigation.

There are lots of areas in which the Government, working with others on the Council and Members of the European Parliament, who have an opportunity to amend the budget, can do a lot more, but only if there is a tiny threat that we might not want to increase our contribution at all. We have the reason to do it—the accounts not being signed off—but a urge the Minister to consider the opportunities that present themselves in the coming years. I support the Government in trying to reduce our budgetary contribution. I know that it is unbelievably hard work—I have sat in on these trilogue meetings in Brussels—but it is worth the effort, because we could save the UK taxpayer billions of pounds.