The latest Futurus briefing paper – the financial settlement with the EU

lets not give these crooks any more of this Nations a single penny or £ more leave get rid of the corrupt 3 old parties leave the EU & ECHR now bup.org.uk

I say we should give them what we legally owe ie contributions to pensions and EU projects we were committed to BUT NOT A SINGLE PENNY MORE. Such is their totally obstructive attitude towards us (how DARE we pesky Britons leave their wonderful club?) if they don’t stop this I would begrudge even paying that!

The EU’s demand for a contribution towards generous future pensions for EU civil servants seems to be taken for granted. Yet it is as spurious as the rest of their claim. There is no EU pension fund, and no EU member pays into one to fund future pensions. The EU pays its pensions in the same way as we do, on the “pay as you go” principle. Today’s payments pay for the pensions being paid out today. When we joined, we started paying our share of the pensions of those who had retired before we joined. We’ve paid our share and should not pay any more.

Good points, Ken. Why should we pay for the pensions of Brits who are working for EU organizations? Their pension benefits were built up while the UK was in the EU and after Brexit their pensions will be earned while they work for the EU sans the UK. No UK liability for their future lavist overpaid EU pensions that I can see.

The government must stop being held to ransom and take the game back to the EU, pronto.
They must announce that because of the disingenuous game-playing ….’money wanted just to speak’ etc, the EU is considered to have effectively ceased negotiating. Any existing exit payment pledge, e.g. the current £20Bn, is withdrawn.
Recent history demonstrates that the aim of the EU is constantly to stall progress in the ‘negotiations. I believe their aim is to try to force a last minute crisis in 2019, for which the remedy is ‘more time needed’. If this situation is allowed to continue, our exit will therefore be postponed ‘to allow discussions to proceed’, alongside increasing demands for money, etc. Result: our EU membership simply continues. We are no further forward.
The EU already trades with many nations within the WTO system, whose rules prevent tariffs being deliberately exaggerated to suit political circumstances. They would be obliged to trade fairly with us, in the same way, as a 3rd party country. We need to be committed to this decision and rapidly divert resources to setting it up.
The period immediately after March 2019 is not now to be a ‘transitional period’, but a clean and total break from the EU….our borders back, no EU laws, ECJ or further membership contributions. Trading to be within WTO rules until further notice.
Meanwhile, if the EU wishes to get real and enter into sensible ‘adult’ negotiations with the serious aim of reaching a better trading agreement later, then we would welcome this. If and when such an agreement is reached, the WTO period can be superceded.
Along the way, the question of balancing out financial matters between us and the EU can be discussed and hopefully agreed.
I believe a firm decision to take this path, and stick to it, would restore confidence in the government and demonstrate that the exit referendum decision is being unconditionally upheld.

Ken Worthy’s point that pensions are paid on “the pay as you go”principle is very apt. Are you all aware of the huge future cost of EU pensions for the next generation? It has been estimated by the University of Freiberg in a report commissioned by the ECB in 2009 that the pensions liability of just 17 EU countries amounted to a staggering 30 trillion euros. The report concluded that the UK had the lowest liability at 91.2% GDP. France, Germany and Austria had pension liabilities of over 300% GDP. Leaving the EU has surely saved our next generation from a lifetime of debt helping to fund this colossal liability.

With regard to the EU bribing the UK for more and more money before they even begin to talk about trade is Obscene in the extreme. Since 1973 UK trade with the EU has currently resulted in a deficit of well over £1 trillion. Yet the UK made a surplus in trade with the rest of the world over the same period of over £200 billion.

with Merkel struggling to remain President in Germany Britain should use the weakened EU position to our advantage

I am basically a simple soul. As far as I see it, the EU is no more than an Unincorporated Association – a Club – which we are leaving. The only legal validity they have, or ever had, was via the European Acts in the British Parliament. When the Act as repealed, we are no longer members of the club and by normal rules, all assets and liabilities are the property of the remaining members.
If, however, the EU demands that we take a share of the Liabilities then we must, ipso facto, claim a share of the assets, plus the monies owed to us. An article in the Mail, by Leo McKinstry, put that at £58 billion. He put together the money we have in the ECB, illegal bailouts to Eurozone Countries, monies not paid to us for the Health Care of immigrants and tourists from Europe, and so on.
The European Commission may believe that, as Barosso and Juncker have both said, that “the EU Treaties mean what we say they mean,” but they are very, very wrong. They cannot have their cake an eat it. We owe, and share in the asset, or we walk away from the club owing nothing.

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[…] we published Anthony Scholefield’s Futurus Briefing paper on the financial settlement with the EU, the author has undertaken some further research which has resulted in a revision to the original […]