Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the UK contribution to the European External Action Service has been in each year since its creation; and what proportion of the European External Action Service’s overall budget the UK has contributed in each such year.

Mr David Lidington

The United Kingdom contributes to the EU budget as a whole, not to individual elements of it. The initial European External Action Service (EEAS) budget in 2011 was €464 million. €441 million of this was existing money transferred from the Commission and Council Secretariat. The EEAS budget was €489 million in 2012, €509 million in 2013 and €519 million in 2014. Over this period, the UK’s pre-abatement financing share was 14.5% (outturn) in 2011, 15.3% in 2012, 15.5% in 2013, and 15.4% in 2014 based on the latest budgets for those years. The UK has been clear in arguing for restraint in the EEAS budget at a time when difficult spending decisions are being taken by member states and we continue to remind the EEAS of its commitment to resource neutrality.