Classic example of why the British were so right to have voted ‘Leave’

Revealed: Another EU fund the UK would have paid into, hidden from British voters

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org, except the EU Military Staff Coat of Arms which is © EU Commission

The EU’s new €5bn ‘off-budget’ military fund, in addition to EU’s official military spending

Yesterday we reported on the speech by the EU’s de facto Defence Secretary, Josep Borrell, to the EU Parliament. In our report we included an important excerpt which we said we would return to. Before we re-quote what Senor Borrell said, here is why it is important:-

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

What this article tells you about why we were so right to leave

  • The UK has been paying into EU ‘off-budget’ funds like this for years, without British voters knowing
  • These UK payments into ‘off-budget’ EU accounts have totalled billions
  • They have never been included in the official Treasury summaries of the UK’s net contributions
  • They have never been included in the summaries given to the public by the BBC, Sky News, or ITN
  • If Remain had won, the UK would be paying another €0.75bn for this one fund alone, without it appearing as part of the UK’s ‘net EU contributions’
  • Funds like this are not allowed under its treaty, so the EU simply takes them ‘off-the-books’
  • This is another example of the ‘rules-based European Union’ breaking its own rules
  • It is also another example of what Nick “Dangerous Fantasy” Clegg denied – the moves establishing an EU military

Nick Clegg and his “dangerous fantasies”

In 2014 Nigel Farage accepted a challenge from the then leader of the LibDems, now a very highly-paid Vice-President for a multinational corporation, Facebook, and living in the USA. The two debated on BBC television and this debate included the now infamous exchange on the EU’s military ambitions.

Over and over, Mr Clegg referred to Mr Farage’s claims as being a “dangerous fantasy”. Here is that exchange.

At the time of writing, Mr Clegg has yet to issue an apology to the British people (and to Mr Farage).

The EU’s new €5bn ‘off-budget’ military fund

The EU is heading towards a full Defence Union. This is not remotely denied by the EU itself and we have published numerous reports on this over the years, which make Mr Clegg’s words shameful.

As with so much that the EU does, however, a certain guile and misdirection is deployed in order to advance the federalist, superstate cause. The EU already has “The European Defence Fund” as part of its annual budget. The new “European Peace Facility” is in addition to this and will not appear in the official EU budget.

When we first started reporting on this fund in 2018, it was going to be €10.5bn. The only thing that has halved the total amount the EU Commission technocrats were able to get through is the Covid-induced financial crisis.

Here is what the EU’s High Representative (and de facto Defence and Foreign Secretary) told MEPs in Brussels on Tuesday:-

“On the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), I would like to commend our colleagues in our 17 missions and operations for delivering on their mandates in this difficult situation. … You have helped navigate this Common Foreign and Security Policy budget to a safe harbour during 2020, as well as the Multiannual Financial Framework.”

“Particularly important is the political agreement reached on the European Peace Facility (EPF): €5 billion over seven years. It will make our CSDP more effective and respond better to our partners’ needs.”

Why have the EU made this an ‘off-budget’ fund and who will manage it?

Off-budget instruments such as this new ‘European Peace Facility’ are necessary because the Union’s budget cannot be used to finance expenditure arising from operations having military or defence implications. This is a treaty obligation.

The key aspect here is the EU’s increasing desire to engage in operations and action. Other defence-related instruments such as the European Defence Fund will contribute to develop Member States defence capabilities in research and procurement. The new EPF extends this to include military actions.

This new off-budget EU military fund will be run by the High Representative (Senor Borrell), with the support of his European External Action Service (EEAS). Actions funded by the Facility will be decided by the Council or the Political and Security Committee, acting by unanimity on the basis of proposals from the High Representative.

Observations

For years - unlike the BBC - we've been reporting on the 'off-budget' EU funds the UK has paid for

These days when we promote articles such as the one above on social media, we get any number of smart Alecs and Alices making comments like “We’ve left so this is irrelevant”. It does not seem to occur to such people that if the content of the article really were irrelevant to the UK, we would not have wasted our time researching, writing, publishing, and promoting it.

It is still a fact that millions of people believe the Remainer narrative from the broadcast media that “Leave lied and that’s why they won”. Michel Barnier and others continue to propagate this nonsense on a regular basis.

On 24 June 2016 and the subsequent days following the Referendum we were the only Brexit organisation to continue researching and publishing. Other organisations felt that “we’ve won” and disappeared either permanently or for months. This left the field wide open for the well-funded Remainer organisations to swoop in and completely dominate the public discourse.

As a result, Brexiteers had to endure years of a Remainer Parliament and Remainer Establishment doing everything they could think of to overturn the democratic decision of the British people. Those people came within a whisker of succeeding and we would argue that the lack of an effective pro-Brexit opposition created the environment where Mrs May’s Remainer team left Boris Johnson with only one choice – to leave without a trade deal.

As we all know, the Prime Minister chose to do a deal and accept the awful legacy he had been left. The consequences of this dreadful UK-EU ‘Trade & Cooperation Agreement’ and of leaving with the abominable Withdrawal Agreement still in place, will be felt for decades to come.

If only Brexit really were "done"

Unfortunately some people now think Brexit is "done" and not surprisingly the whole Covid thing has hit the level of donations we receive, which were already less than we needed to survive. We are most grateful to readers who have donated in recent days, but we badly need more readers to do the same. 10 readers donating £500 per month, or 50 readers donating £100 per month, or 1000 readers donating £5 per month - on top of the one-off donations and monthly donations we currently receive, this would just about keep us going.

Sadly, the challenges of seeing Brexit through are not the only concerns we face. Freedom of expression and the basic principles of democratic accountability are under attack as we have never seen before. We have far more to do in researching, publishing, campaigning and lobbying Parliament than we have in terms of the financial resources to fulfil these tasks. We rely 100% on public donations from readers like you. Unlike the Remain/Rejoin camp, we do not have foreign billionaires to subsidise our work.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please make a donation now. It’s quick, secure, and confidential, and you can use one of the links below or you can use our Donations page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 24 hours. Thank you so much if you can help to keep us going in these critical months ahead.

[ Sources: EU Parliament | EEAS ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 22 Jan 2021

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