BREXIT SAVES US BILLIONS IN EU FEES AND MEMBERSHIP COSTS
Summary:
As one of the larger economies of the EU, the UK was a net contributor to the EU budget – which means that it paid in more each year than it received in return.
The UK was responsible for 12.5% of the annual core budget of the EU, which in 2024 was €189 Billion – which would in turn have resulted in a gross contribution from the UK of around €24 Billion, were it still to be a member.
This would have meant a likely net contribution of around €14-16 Billion in 2024 – money that can now be spent in the UK instead.
Explanation:
As one of the larger economies of the EU (second largest by GDP, third largest by population in 2016), the UK was also one of the largest net contributors to the core EU budget –- which means that it would contribute more to the EU budget each year than it would receive back in expenditure by the EU within the UK.
The UK was responsible for roughly 12.5% of the annual core budget of the EU, which in 2024 was €189 Billion – which would in turn have resulted in a gross contribution from the UK of around €24 Billion, were it still to be a member. This figure would have been higher though, had the UK still been a member, as there would have been additional spend within the UK as well.
Working from previous ratios of gross and net contributions, and assuming an annual gross contribution of €24 Billion (which would have been higher), the UK would have had a net contribution each year in this budgetary period of at least €14-16 Billion.
From outside of the EU, the UK government not only gets to decide, in line with the wishes of the UK electorate, where €8 Billion of UK contributions gets to be spent –- but it also has an additional €14-16 Billion to allocate to the priorities of the electorate as well.
These figures do not include the billions of additional financial commitments to the EU foreign aid programme or other EU projects that were billed to the UK separately.
Reference: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-annual-budget/2024-budget/
Reference: https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2019/09/18/how-eu-contributions-are-calculated/