After Theresa May decided to resign last week, the House of Commons is as deadlocked as ever. The next two months will be taken up by the Conservative leadership contest, meaning the UK will struggle to leave before the new deadline: October 31. EU leaders are due to review progress on Brexit at a regular summit on June 20-21.

However, by that time, they will not even know who they are negotiating with after Theresa May leaves Downing Street.

Amid Brexiteer fears that Britain may never leave the bloc, a newly-resurfaced report reveals how Tony Blair became the third British politician to be awarded the Charlemagne Prize 20 years ago, in recognition of his service to European integration.

According to a 1999 report by The Independent, the prize came with a cash reward worth £1,850 – the equivalent of £3,000 today – was given to Mr Blair in the city of Aachen, Charlemagne’s birthplace, for his “active and constructive” role in European integration.

The Charlemagne Prize’s committee said in its report: “With the change of government in 1997, Britain’s attitude to Europe gained a new dynamism.

Thank you Mr Blair for sacrificing a large chunk of the British rebate in return for absolutely nothing

Nigel Farage

“Tony Blair, who already in 1975 voted for Europe in the referendum, is the embodiment of this new and intensive turn towards Europe.

“From the beginning of his office Tony Blair clearly voiced the Europe-friendly attitude of his government.”

Mr Blair was also praised for the “Third Way”, the modernising zeal of his administration, and for bridging the gap between liberalism and socialism.

The Labour Prime Minister received the financial reward six years before the UK’s contributions to the EU budget doubled mainly due to his decision to cut a large part of Britain’s rebate from Brussels.

All EU countries contribute to the EU budget, and in return benefit from EU spending in their countries.

As the bulk of the EU budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which supports farmers’ incomes, countries with a large agricultural sector generally get more back than they put in.

In a 2018 report by the Daily Telegraph, author and journalist Charles Booker claimed it was the “clever” French who actually devised the CAP, which was “so “absurdly loaded in France’s favour” that the UK ended up subsidising them”.

Mr Booker explained that in 1973, the year Britain joined the Community, British farm incomes were higher than ever before, but “so loaded against us were the financial arrangements for the CAP that, by 1979, it was clear that within six years the UK would be the largest single net contributor to the Brussels budget, of which the CAP was then taking 90 percent: hence Mrs Thatcher’s five-year battle to win her rebate”.

Like Mr Booker mentioned, in 1984, Mrs Thatcher fought to negotiate a reduction of two-thirds in the UK’s net contribution, to be paid by other EU members, on the grounds that the agricultural subsidies favour small farmers and Britain has very few.

However, in 2005, Mr Blair decided to agree to a 7 percent cut in the rebate during negotiations on the EU budget deal.

According to figures published by the Financial Times in 2014, the agreement reached by the Labour Prime Minister cost the economy £7billion over the course of seven years.

The publication claimed the rebate had fallen from £5.4billion in 2009 to £3.3billion in 2013.

At the same time, total payments from the UK had risen from £14.1billion to £17.2billion.

The Daily Telegraph then reported that Britain’s net contribution in 2013 had doubled to £8.6billion, up from £4.3billion in 2009.

After the rebate settlement was agreed, eurosceptics questioned whether Britain could afford to remain in the bloc.

Nigel Farage said at the time: “Thank you Mr Blair for sacrificing a large chunk of the British rebate in return for absolutely nothing.

“The question is no longer can we afford to leave, it is can we afford to stay?”

Robert Oxley, of the campaign group Business for Britain, said: “We’ve been pouring more and more money into the EU every year, only to see far too much of it squandered.

“Tony Blair threw away much of our rebate in return for empty promises of reform that never materialised.

It’s about time Brussels curbed its spending, rather than making extra demands on the UK because our economy is growing.”

Winston Churchill and Edward Heath are the other two British politicians to have received the Charlemagne Prize.

According to unearthed reports, Mr Heath received £1.5million from the EU before signing away British sovereignty and taking the country into the bloc.

According to 1990 book “Treason at Maastricht” by author Rodney Atkinson and political activist Norris McWhirter, Mr Heath received “£75,000” as part of his prize, which translated into today’s money would equal to £1.5million.

The book says: “[Mr Heath] certainly benefited, after having signed away British sovereignty in 1972, from the £75,000 Charlemagne Prize – presented by the German city of Aachen – for those who have done most for the construction of the European State.”

A 2005 report by the Daily Telegraph rejected this claim, suggesting Mr Heath actually received much less from the European Parliament.

The report reads: “He was awarded the Charlemagne Prize; and put the £446 bounty towards a Steinway piano.”

After receiving the award, Mr Heath took almost a decade before taking Britain into Europe.

Source: Read Full Article