Viggen Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 ...Britain apparently ows the EU 25 billion Euro, before that has been paid, Britain is not going to leave, Britain never going to pay for it, so you guys stay in the EU indefenitely, problem solved... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caesar novus Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 (edited) I think that 25b "owing" interpretation is limited to a few German sources so far. By that logic Germany may "owe" UK even more due to annually paying only half of it's NATO commitments of 2% of GDP. UK overpays but most of Europe pays 1% or less. If I have this right Germany should pay 35b more per year, or UK could have saved annual 31b to drop down to German levels of NATO contribution. Some of this backlash against Brexit smells of spurned lovers overcompensating, as if they were originally more Anglophile than they let on. Maybe Junckers used to sleep in Union Jack pajamas? Anyway paying off the 25b may be worth it for cutting future losses. As I understand it, this number primarily involves EU porkbarrel projects like building bridges in Bulgeria which the EU promised to pay for but didn't yet. Even when the pork was spent in the UK, what chance did UK voters get to shut down or streamline such projects. BTW a bridge building professor told us that virtually all bridges should be of the truss type from Roman times if cost accounting was rational. The fancy modern designs are done to reduce local labor hours whose wages are artificially boosted by gov't, vs more material expenditure which is affordably bought on free intn'l market. Edited August 7, 2016 by caesar novus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 well, we talk about 25 billion (which is of course just a number, but a big one) and all Britain is worrying is some bridges in Bulgaria? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caesar novus Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 (edited) No, Britain isn't doing the worrying. It's what is behind the claims of German/EU official, which borders on a technical gimmick. It's nothing UK specific and was not anything the UK asked for or specifically agreed to. I have lost a detailed explanatory link, but will try to summarize more fully than https://www.rt.com/uk/354758-brexit-eu-debt-leave/ Every EU country makes commitments to pay for their share of EU budget; UK will probably follow thru with 4 year contribution of e60b it promised before the vote. However, on the spending side EU makes promises for various construction projects that exceed their own budget, and this has built up year to year to I guess 200b now. Someone divided this by 8 to come up with a bill to the UK, although technically no EU country can have debt to EU and some EU lawyers say the UK could ignore it. Several articles likened this to credit card limits, which I don't really follow. They said for instance for that bridge in Bulgaria or UK, some EU official would say go ahead and build it to be refunded later by EU. So I guess they get a non-EU loan first, or maybe from some EU bonds? They seemed to say a lot of projects are backed up waiting for the budget and country commitments to catch up. It is this promise-making that appears to be out of control from any democratic process and smells elitist to me. Anyway, I include bridge picture from Trajan's column which a civil engineer professor called still the most efficient solution for most places. He said some wooden trusses were put in the wrong place, but that may have been just the sculptor. Edited August 8, 2016 by caesar novus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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