France's economy minister tells Britain - 'We want our money back'

[webfact]

France's economy minister tells Britain - 'We want our money back'

 

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire leaves after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

 

PARIS (Reuters) - French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday that Britain must pay what it owes to the European Union and it is a non-negotiable prerequisite for Brexit talks.

 

"I will say what Margaret Thatcher used to say: We want our money back," Le Maire said, answering questions from lawmakers in the economic affairs committee of the French parliament.

 

"We can always debate on the amount but on the fact that the United Kingdom must pay what it owes to the budget of the European Union, it is a non-negotiable prerequisite at the start of the (Brexit) discussions," Le Maire said.

 

The EU wants London to accept a bill to cover its share of EU spending commitments made while Britain was a member, an amount which Le Maire said could be up to 100 billion euros (88.34 billion pounds).

 

"The payment by the United Kingdom of its remainder ... is a non-negotiable prerequisite for any discussion of the future of our relations," he added.

 

(Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-20

[Dave67]

How about we take out the cost of liberating your country from the Nazis

[ilostmypassword]

8 minutes ago, Dave67 said:

How about we take out the cost of liberating your country from the Nazis

Because that was done purely for the benefit of France and not the least bit out of self-interest.

[clockman]

How about the 90 bullion that stolen from the E.U.every year? And they know the countries involved?

[ilostmypassword]

50 minutes ago, clockman said:

How about the 90 bullion that stolen from the E.U.every year? And they know the countries involved?

Got any links to provide to support your assertion? I did a google search and nothing came up.

[clockman]

3 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Got any links to provide to support your assertion? I did a google search and nothing came up.

Just check corruption across E.U. breathtaking.

[fabphil]

Tell em to go get stuffed....

[chezy86]

1 hour ago, Dave67 said:

How about we take out the cost of liberating your country from the Nazis

And we bailed em out in the First World War how about reparations for that!. 

[ilostmypassword]

7 minutes ago, clockman said:

Just check corruption across E.U. breathtaking.

In other words, you just made up your assertion about 90 billion in fraud. Considering that the EU's total budget is about 140 billion, it's obvious that your assertion is nonsense.

[midas]

10 minutes ago, fabphil said:

Tell em to go get stuffed....

The proper terminology is " go whistle " according to the UK foreign minister

[boomerangutang]

1 hour ago, Dave67 said:

How about we take out the cost of liberating your country from the Nazis

A deal is a deal.  If UK went in on an agreement, then it should honor that agreement.  Dragging up stuff from 70 yrs ago is not helpful.  Plus, Britain was attacked in WWII, so it was in their interest to counter-attack the attackers.  It so happened that much of that counter-attack was on French soil.

 

 

[chezy86]

A deal is a deal.  If UK went in on an agreement, then it should honor that agreement.  Dragging up stuff from 70 yrs ago is not helpful.  Plus, Britain was attacked in WWII, so it was in their interest to counter-attack the attackers.  It so happened that much of that counter-attack was on French soil.
 
 

David Davis the U.K. chief negotiator is a Yorkshireman like myself and we are renowned for being frugal .He won't pay a penny more than he needs to to the EU. Just to put the record straight England declared war on Germany because they invaded Poland they weren't attacked by the Germans.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, Dave67 said:

How about we take out the cost of liberating your country from the Nazis

 

21 minutes ago, chezy86 said:

And we bailed em out in the First World War how about reparations for that!. 

why not go all the way back to Stonehenge, who paid for that I ask?

[Dave67]

32 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

A deal is a deal.  If UK went in on an agreement, then it should honor that agreement.  Dragging up stuff from 70 yrs ago is not helpful.  Plus, Britain was attacked in WWII, so it was in their interest to counter-attack the attackers.  It so happened that much of that counter-attack was on French soil.

 

 

Yes and didn't De Gualle deny us membership of the EU because he thought we didn't have enough money 

[Dave67]

15 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

 

why not go all the way back to Stonehenge, who paid for that I ask?

Druids, Welsh Remainers

[smedly]

18 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

A deal is a deal.  If UK went in on an agreement, then it should honor that agreement.  Dragging up stuff from 70 yrs ago is not helpful.  Plus, Britain was attacked in WWII, so it was in their interest to counter-attack the attackers.  It so happened that much of that counter-attack was on French soil.

 

 

well yes a deal is a deal but that deal only remains in place while we are a member of the club, the EU want the UK to continue with contributions after we have cancelled our membership - sorry but it doesn't work like that. If a country like Poland left would they still be entitled to financial support ?...............no they wouldn't because they left the club.

 

The EU (Germany) know full well it cannot survive without the contribution from the UK, it leaves a massive financial hole that neither Germany or France are willing to fill, as far as they are concerned there are only 3 options right now.

 

1. Cause so much instability in the UK that it will implode on itself and stop the brexit process, one method to achieve that might be to force the UK to walk away from the talks after putting up serious roadblocks - the outrageous brexit bill demand is a fine example, if they are going to insist on this huge ridiculous amount of money then the talks will go no further.

 

2. If brexit goes ahead make sure that the UK continues to contribute even though it has left

.

3. Collapse of the EU the Euro and Germany and France going it alone protecting their own interests.

 

There are divisive elements at work in the UK and that is pretty clear including certain media groups and others who want to see the whole thing collapse 

 

 

[chrissables]

37 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

A deal is a deal.  If UK went in on an agreement, then it should honor that agreement.  Dragging up stuff from 70 yrs ago is not helpful.  Plus, Britain was attacked in WWII, so it was in their interest to counter-attack the attackers.  It so happened that much of that counter-attack was on French soil.

 

 

The UK are not legally bound to pay anything. 

[LannaGuy]

Give them the Churchill V sign

Edited July 20, 2017 by LannaGuy

[mfd101]

terrabul thoz ffrench peepul. KaRNT EEVN rite inglish propa!

[shaurene]

It is well known that France does not like the English and we do not like them. Government back stabbers. They cannot get over that they have never been able to beat us in any of the wars we had against each other for hundreds of years. Churchill and US President never trusted them. The Vichie joined the Germans. 

We sent an expiditionery force to France to help them, we saved them in WW1 &11.

they owe us a great deal. 

France gets so much funding from the EU.

[hawker9000]

39 minutes ago, chezy86 said:

David Davis the U.K. chief negotiator is a Yorkshireman like myself and we are renowned for being frugal .He won't pay a penny more than he needs to to the EU. Just to put the record straight England declared war on Germany because they invaded Poland they weren't attacked by the Germans.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Technically true,, but only in terms of declarations of war, which are not actual "attacks".  The French and BEF (British Expeditionary Force) were  in fact attacked by the Germans.  Prior to that was the "Phoney War" or Sitzkrieg, lasting from 1 SEP 1939 (the invasion of Poland; Britain declared war two days later on the 3rd) until the German attack on France and the low countries on 10 May 1940, during which there were no hostilities (hence the name).  So your statement that "they weren't attacked by the Germans" is patently false; they in fact most certainly and famously were.

 

 

[ilostmypassword]

33 minutes ago, smedly said:

 

 

The EU (Germany) know full well it cannot survive without the contribution from the UK, it leaves a massive financial hole that neither Germany or France are willing to fill, as far as they are concerned there are only 3 options right now.

 

 

 

The UK net contribution to the EU is about 8 billion Euros. Germany's budget surplus was more than that. Not exactly a massive financial hole.

[ilostmypassword]

3 minutes ago, shaurene said:

 

France gets so much funding from the EU.

France is a big net contributor to the EU. In 2014, the latest year I could find figures for, France's net contribution was about 7 billion euros. The UK's was about 4 billion euros.

[joecoolfrog]

Its all hyperbole and sword rattling. If no deal is achieved we still leave and both sides lose .

[Gramps]

1 hour ago, clockman said:

Just check corruption across E.U. breathtaking.

And still no evidence. Links?...Citations?... Anything?... No?, We'll move on then.

[Aforek]

7 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

France is a big net contributor to the EU. In 2014, the latest year I could find figures for, France's net contribution was about 7 billion euros. The UK's was about 4 billion euros.

From many months now, everytime the discussion comes to Brexit, English people on this forum are very subjective and give many wrong informations 

 

 

[janclaes47]

Just now, Aforek said:

From many months now, everytime the discussion comes to Brexit, English people on this forum are very subjective and give many wrong informations 

 

 

That is because they were fed wrong information before the referendum lol

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, klauskunkel said:

 

why not go all the way back to Stonehenge, who paid for that I ask?

well many of the stones came from Wales , so not sure .

[YetAnother]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

'We want our money back'

cmon, that's funny; not out of line with french thinking

[joecoolfrog]

16 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

France is a big net contributor to the EU. In 2014, the latest year I could find figures for, France's net contribution was about 7 billion euros. The UK's was about 4 billion euros.

Not correct , Uk is a far bigger net contributor, even allowing for our rebate.Literally dozens of articles confirm this via a simple google search , data up to 2015/16.