08-06-2016, 12:55 AM
For years the EU has been agreeing to fund more projects - commitments - than it makes payments. By the end of 2015 the difference amounted to €218bn, up from €190bn the previous year. Essentially, the EU has maxed out its credit card in the last decade, after splurging on new motorways, airports and other shiny new infrastructure projects in central and eastern Europe. The overspend rolls from one year into the next and is not seen as a problem in Brussels, but now the UK is leaving there has to be a reckoning. According to Wirtschaftswoche, the UK’s share of that “debt” amounts to €25bn.
Britain owes the EU £21bn, report claims – but is it true? | Politics | The Guardian