UK to pay part of extra £15bn in pensions and benefits honeypot for EU staff

Taxpayers are on the line for EU’s latest 21% hike in part of Theresa May’s ‘divorce bill’

EU accounts show massive jump in pensions liabilities just before UK left

In case you had forgotten about Theresa May’s disastrous “EU Divorce Bill”, the EU certainly hasn’t. Here is just one example of this.

An analysis by Facts4EU.Org has shown that the EU’s pension and employee benefits liabilities suddenly jumped by an astonishing €17.2bn (£14.8bn GBP) in the last financial year of the UK’s membership of the EU.

The official EU accounts for 2019 – the last full year of the UK’s membership of the EU – show a 21.4% hike in pension and staff benefit liabilities. This huge rise took place between the December 2018 and the December 2019 accounts. In just 12 months the total liabilities for the EU’s very generous pensions and staff benefits soared.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Almost €100bn euros now in the honeypot for EU staff

EU pension & staff benefits liability Dec 2018 : €80.87bn
EU pension & staff benefits liability Dec 2019 : €98.06bn
Increase : €17.19bn (£14.8bn GBP), equating to +21.4% in 12 months

Coincidence, or is the EU making hay while the UK sun shines?

Time and again since Mrs May’s astonishing and hugely expensive agreement to a “Divorce Bill” of tens of billions of pounds to the EU in advance of any satisfactory withdrawal or trade agreement, (which she never achieved), Facts4EU.Org warned that the EU would inflate the numbers and claim everything they could possibly think of.

Regarding the EU's new pension and staff benefits pot, the EU Commission claims that “The increase is mainly due to the actuarial loss from financial assumptions”. It must therefore be a coincidence that this last-minute hike happened just before the UK left.

The latest (£34bn) estimate for the total divorce bill may need to be recalculated

The Office for Budget Responsibility calculates its estimates for the ‘divorce bill’, which it updates from time to time. The reason for these updates is simple. As the House of Commons Library Research Service says:

“There is no definitive cost to the settlement. The final cost to the UK will depend on future events such as future exchange rates and EU budgets. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimate that the net cost to the UK may be £34 billion.”
House of Commons Library report, Dec 2020

In other words, no amount was ever agreed with the EU by Theresa May’s government. Instead the EU can keep on inflating the numbers as often as it likes, provided it can come up with some form of justification. The pensions and staff benefits liabilities are only one case in point.

The UK is responsible for part of this extra £15bn, under the 'divorce bill' that was agreed by Theresa May and her civil servants.

This divorce bill was never payable in the first place

As Facts4EU.Org has reported many times before, there is no legal basis for any divorce bill. This was confirmed before Mrs May agreed to it by no less a body than a committee of the Remainer-dominated House of Lords.

The EU has never once been able to provide any legal basis for the divorce bill. This open-ended EU bankrolling scheme was agreed to by the EU-appeasing British government of Mrs May and her pro-EU British civil servants, and they got precisely nothing in return.

Observations

We will be paying the EU until 2064 - official

We do not and have never believed the OBR’s estimates for the total costs which the UK will end up paying to the EU. To paraphrase the Luftwaffe's Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering’s statement (regarding the possibility of RAF bombs dropping on the Ruhr): “If the eventual bill doesn’t end up as a much larger sum, you can call us Juncker”.

As things currently stand, the UK government’s official figures show the UK continuing to pay sums to the EU up to the year 2064.

Very little is now reported about this appalling EU ransom demand. The EU Commission has not forgotten it and neither have we. Facts4EU.Org continues to argue for a rescinding of the agreement, as it was so clearly predicated on an acceptable withdrawal and trade deal which the EU has never provided.

Yes, 'ordinary people' CAN make a difference

Many people like you, our readers, have expressed their profound concerns about the current state of democracy and the direction where this great country of ours is headed. Brexit Facts4EU.Org continues to work behind the scenes - in addition to what you read on our website and in social media - to pressure the Government and MPs.

It has always been everyday people like you who made it possible for Facts4EU.Org to exist and to provide this service. We present facts-based research that most of the MSM fails to provide, and through that give a voice to a more commonsense approach that is shared and sought by so many people, still not being heard as it often differs from the 'party line' or 'right thing to say'.

Yes, you can do something and we hope you will. Please help us out with a donation today, so we can keep fighting for a free, truly independent, and sovereign United Kingdom and research and publish facts presented in a way you won't see anywhere else.

We do not have corporate funders, which makes our monthly planning more difficult, but it means we are not directed by a confined number of donors. We only take directions from our widespread readership - most of you very well informed - by listening to things you say.

Please support our work to enable us to carry on with our research and publishing, thank you. We badly need your help. You will not be badgered by us for more funds, unlike some organisations! Quick, secure, and confidential donation links are below this article, or you can use our Donations page here.

[ Sources: EU Commission: Consolidated annual accounts of the European Union and financial statement, financial year 2019 | UK Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) | House of Commons Library Service ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 24 May 2021

Click here to go to our news headlines

Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget to actually post your message after you have previewed it!

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 15

1. Ian , Monday, May 24, 2021, 07:24:

Should not be paid. Let the EU pay for its own and any UK ex-EU pensioners have their pensions frozen like any of the rest of us who get made redundant.

2. Vivienne , Monday, May 24, 2021, 07:34:

Well aren’t we the lucky ones.

3. Susan Valerie Sharpe , Monday, May 24, 2021, 07:38:

She really sold us down the river!

4. Rodney Woodhouse , Monday, May 24, 2021, 09:20:

Don't forget we also have to contribute to the EU projects including their armed forces, it's part of free trade part of Boris Johnson treaty.

5. David Luck , Monday, May 24, 2021, 10:42:

and so the EU pensions go up thanks to the British taxpayers and yet the British pensioners who have worked all their lives just get not even the same as the European counterparts -- so again I ask the question that no one will answer "We are still in the EU and have been sold out again YES or NO"

6. Richard Horton , Monday, May 24, 2021, 10:51:

Rip up this agreement. The people who “negotiated” this are traitors ! The poor UK pensioners have the worst pension payment in Europe, by far, ans we now have to fund the fat cats in an organisation to which we no longer belong. Ridiculous !

7. Diane , Monday, May 24, 2021, 11:18:

This is, amongst other things, the result of appeasement and lack of attention to detail. The UK’s liability under the appalling Withdrawal Agreement & everything else done ‘last minute’ was always going to produce ill defined figures. The European Commission’s pension scheme liability reportedly increased by around Euros 30 billion since the Referendum 2016. The UK government had anticipated certain figures but it was foreseen, at least by analysts at the time, that the liability would likely increase and so it has. Both the last and current PMs landed us with increased liabilities as a result of agreeing that they be based on the value as at 31 December 2020 at the end of the Transition, rather than when we actually ‘left’ in January. Ah well. It’s only money. In the wrong hands.

8. Do You Wonder , Monday, May 24, 2021, 12:39:

Maybe have an independant audit of the EU books as :
1. due diligence on the part of the UK
2. requirement of the terrorist legislation/money laundering legislation in identifying payments?
3. there's probably never - ever -been an independant audit of the EU books.
Could I suggest that you have a read the about the history of corruption and ineptitude evidenced by Marta Andreasen’s book ‘Brussels Laid Bare’ you will be dumbfounded.
If the electorate had read her book before the referendum I'm certain the majority would have been much larger.
For a briefing look her up on Wiki and note which unelectable former UK PM fired her for blowing the whistle. The affair was debated in the Commons and recorded in Hansard.
I bought the book recently and if you search you will find it free online. You might have to fiddle with the settings, but I suggest you read it.
Https://archive.Org/details...
I've been in touch with the publisher and they still have copies. A smallish book but worth every penny of a tenner.

9. Roger Land , Monday, May 24, 2021, 14:30:

Audited accounts (for the first time in decades) will reveal a few billion down the back of the sofa!

10. Roger Land , Monday, May 24, 2021, 14:33:

EU accounts that have been audited (for the first time) will reveal a few billion down the sofa!

15 comments, page 1 of 2

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.