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SOUND-BITE FACTS   -   CHEAP FLIGHTS, MOBILE ROAMING, HEALTHCARE
CLICK ON EACH FACT BELOW  for details and official sources, or scroll down
Suggestions for more facts? Other comments? See bottom of page.
CHEAP FLIGHTS
Ryanair, Easyjet, Wizzair and others will keep flying. They'll continue charging low prices.
 
MOBILE ROAMING CHARGES
Polish President of EU Council Tusk Norway isn't in the EU, and yet they have the same roaming charges as we do.
HOLIDAY HEALTHCARE
NHS
We've paid the EU £5.78 billion more for healthcare than they’ve paid us. They do well out of us.
 
SORRY MR CAMERON, BUT...
...spending £9.3 million pounds of taxpayers' money to try to manipulate us is just not right.
 
1. Cheap Flights - We all like these!
1. Why would these change? Airlines charge cheap fares because they want our business, not because we're in the EU. They also want the business of the millions of EU citizens who fly into the UK each year.

2. The destinations we fly to are delighted to have high-spending Brits arriving in their region – either on holiday or business. In many cases it’s vital for their local economy.

3. Cheap flights are not confined to EU countries. For example Easyjet flies to non-EU countries in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, Norway. Why would the UK be any different?

4. The airlines are like all big businesses – they generally like the EU because they can have all their lobbyists in one place: Brussels. However, here’s what one strongly pro-EU low-cost airline said about the EU at Easter:-

5. Ryanair said: "You cannot have an effective single market in Europe but then allow a tiny French union to close down half the skies over Europe, causing hundreds of thousands of passenger flights to be cancelled / delayed." The Company added: "The European Commission’s failure to prevent these repeated cancellations makes a mockery of the single European market, and Commissioner Juncker's claims about making Europe competitive."
[Sources: Ryanair website. Easyjet routes: http://www.easyjet.com/en/routemap . Parliament record (Hansard) 07 Sept 2015: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm150907/debtext/150907-0003.htm]
 
Lower Mobile Roaming Charges
1. How many people use international roaming? Some businessmen, yes. Some holidaymakers, yes, for a week or two per year. For most British people the effect on their household budget is small or non-existent. However it's definitely a 'nice to have'.

2. For people on the continent it’s different – more of them pop over a border to work or shop. So they get more benefit than the average Brit does.

3. The EU's rules don’t have force in non-EU countries. However, some UK operators are already applying the lower roaming charges to countries outside the EU – so what makes anyone think they would increase charges if we left the EU? And Norway is not in the EU – so why does it have the same roaming charges as EU members?

4. The EU Commission started working on this in 2005 and they’ve been constantly changing the laws ever since. In effect, the Commission is trying to price-fix – setting prices which mobile operators must obey for a customer’s cross-border usage within the EU.

5. However if you reduce a company’s profits in one area, they’ll just have to make up the difference in another. What will happen to our domestic tariffs if the EU keep interfering in just the EU cross-border part of the mobile operator’s business?

6. Finally, why is the EU so fixated on this one small area of our lives? Answer: It’s the EU’s clear intention to become one country: the United States of Europe. It therefore makes sense for them to start standardising many costs across all member states, prior to becoming one country.

In some areas of life we might benefit, but in others the EU’s interference will mean that our living costs will rise.
[Sources: Regulation (EC) No 717/2007. Regulation (EU) No 531/2012. Regulation (EC) No 544/2009. (COM/2013/0627 final - 2013/0309 (COD). Commission Release 'Roaming charges and open Internet' 30 June 2015. International Roaming Regulation ERG Guidelines 2nd release.]
 
Holiday Healthcare
1. The UK has reciprocal agreements with other EU countries and the terms vary by country.

2. Since records began in 2007, the UK has given £6.18 billion to other EU member states for the treatment of British citizens in the EU, and only got £405 million back from other EU countries for the cost of treating EU citizens in the UK.

3. So we’ve paid the EU £5.78 billion more for healthcare than they’ve paid us.

4. Does the Government really expect us to believe that we won’t be fully-covered for any medical needs if we go to the EU on holiday or are retired there? With over 3 million EU citizens resident in the UK, it would cost the EU a fortune.

5. We fully expect new healthcare arrangements to be negotiated as part of our exit, but it’s obvious that it’s in the EU’s interests to negotiate a friendly arrangement.

In so many areas of life we look at, it’s obvious that the EU will want to strike a deal with us after Brexit.
[Sources: Freedom of Information data request to Dept of Health by Vote Leave (http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/uk_gives_5_8_billion_more_to_eu_countries_for_medical_costs_than_it_gets_back?utm_campaign=160405_c_news&utm_medium=email&utm_source=voteleave). Decision No S1, 2010/C 106/08. NHS England Information on Health Treatment Abroad: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/Pages/Healthcareabroad.aspx .]
The Government's media briefings after producing their leaflet headlined the three issues of cheap flights, mobile charges, and holiday healthcare.
These three issues have a tiny impact on most annual household budgets, but we’ve tackled these claims head-on. We used those three claims purely because the Government used them as being ‘headline-grabbing’.

Note that when making these vague claims, no-one in Government or the Remain side says “will”. They always use the word “could”. If they had facts, they would say “will”. You therefore need to judge whether these claims are just desperate scare tactics.
 
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