‘UK won’t pay £1.7 bn EU bill’

The British prime minister says his country will refuse to pay a £1.7-billion bill demanded as budget contribution by the European Union (EU), calling the Union’s behavior “appalling.”

“We are not suddenly going to take out our checkbook and write a check for two billion euros (USD 2.5 billion); it is not happening,” said David Cameron in a news conference on the sidelines of an EU summit over the member states’ climate change policies in Brussels on Friday.

“It is an unacceptable way for this organization to work, to suddenly present a bill like this for such a vast sum of money, with so little time to pay it, and it is an unacceptable way to treat one of the biggest contributors to the European Union,” the British premier added.

Cameron also warned that such “appalling” behavior would certainly affect Britain’s decision whether to remain in the European Union.

On Thursday, the European Commission demanded a number of European countries including Britain, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Malta to provide the organization with extra money by December other than their annual contributions.

The organization said it made the decision after the recalculation of the member states’ national incomes since 1995, adding that Britain’s economy has enjoyed better-than-expected performance in comparison with other European countries.

“The British economy is growing much faster than the others and the logic is the same as with tax: if someone earns more, they pay more tax,” said European Commission spokesman, Patrizio Fiorilli, on Friday.

This is while Germany, the most thriving economy of the region, will get a rebate of £779 million under EU’s revised measurement system of the member states’ economic output which unprecedentedly includes the financial profit of such activities as prostitution and illegal drug trade.

FNR/HMV/SS

Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/24/383480/uk-wont-pay-17-bn-eu-bill/

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