Britain Pays £2 Million

Britain Will Pay Over £2 Million for Gordon Brown’s Bogus Red Line on EU Charter

Of the total forecasted £96.5 billion EU budget for 2008 – for which British households are due to fork out an annual contribution of £10.7 billion – voters have been kept in the dark over how much of their contribution will be channelled towards obligations associated with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, a Charter which has already been signed along with the Lisbon Treaty. The European Foundation has discovered that since Britain has no exemption from the Charter – as the UK Parliament’s European Scrutiny Committee has ruled, contrary to David Miliband’s claims – there will be no opt-out from at least £2 million of its costs.

The European Foundation has uncovered a significant portion of the EU budget forecast for 2008, relating to the Charter, which will contribute massively towards the UK payment from 2008 onwards. Throughout late 2007, David Miliband promised that Britain would be exempt from the Charter rights as set out under the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but this will leave the British people wondering why it is them who will be paying for the enhancement of existing fundamental rights projects which their own Government claimed they have not participated in.

The forecast for the UK contribution towards the enhancement of existing fundamental rights projects – noting that Gordon Brown and David Miliband promised Britain that an exemption from the rights Charter would create no new rights – will include:

· £1,019,294 on the promotion of “fundamental rights” of EU citizens;

· £706,680 to cover the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (which formerly went under another name) staff and administration, and;

· £420,068 to cover operational costs of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights projects, which will promote the disturbing “development of a European society based on respect for fundamental rights.” (see Appendix 1)

Of course, this does no justice to what will happen under the actual application of the Charter, which will bring the British judiciary further under the control of the European Court of Justice (with its own total forecasted expenditure of £217 million), administering European law for British courts. It is certain that Britain will pay over £2 million directly for Gordon Brown’s bogus red line on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Britain’s commitment to this EU money will bring with it substantial economic and social damage and the closures and failures of business as a result of the application of the Charter rights across the UK, under the mismanagement and jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. This is entirely unacceptable.