this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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Europe

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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

The UK is the only country that got a discount on their payments.

Edit: I stand corrected. One of a few

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Literally not true at all. France and the UK have a practically identical economy size, but France consistently paid billions less.

You are mistaken if you think countries had leverage to make demands but chose not to use it out of charity.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

I found a list, and while I was indeed wrong, as there are other rebates, France is not on the List.

I don't know which numbers you are citing, but if you look at net contributions, payments from the EU to the members may of course also vary.

The UK was the first country to receive a discount though.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Not being part of the same rebate scheme does not mean France didn't pay less.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

It literally does. France does not receive a rebate on the normal calculation by gross national income.

France did receive more EU payouts than the UK in the past ( Example from 2017 ), leading to lower net payments. That's not the same as paying less in the first place though.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You're confirming that France pays less in.

Obviously I'm talking about Net. Gross doesn't matter. If a man puts 1โ‚ฌ into a box and gets 1โ‚ฌ back, he's not really paid anything.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

You're confirming that France pays less in.

I'm not. They paid more in fact. They just also got more back out.

Obviously I'm talking about Net. Gross doesn't matter.

Wrong. What a country pays in and what it gets out are two entirely unrelated questions.

Payments to the EU are calculated by GDI and that's that (except when there is a rebate). They are supposed to be fair based on that metric.

Payments back to the members are not "free money" the government can spend on whatever. They are subsidies bound to specific purposes that have their own specific criteria of distribution. They are not designed to be fair by comparison of GDI or similar metrics. If there were, as a hypothetical example, an EU program to subsidize local winemakers, you can see how France would very likely receive more money out of this fund than the UK.