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 Blair To Abolish Rebate In Exchange For Chirac's Head
By Lolo Laroche
Tony Blair, the UK PM yesterday indicated that the United Kingdom is prepared to compromise over the issue of the UK EC rebate.
The rebate, negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, and which amounted to over 3 Billion Euros in 2004 compensates the UK for the skewed EC budget which allocates 40 percent of its resources to agricultural subsidies, providing France with a 10 Billion Euro rebate last year.
EC budget negotiations have been blocked because the French president Jacques Chirac insisted that the British give up their 3 Billion rebate whilst refusing to give up France’s own 10 Billion rebate.
“The British rebate is a thing of the past, a pathetic anachronism of the eighties,” Chirac told reporters as he left the failed EC budget negotiations.
It seemed last night however that a compromise had been found when Tony Blair dropped British demands linking the UK rebate to the French agricultural subsidy.
“Chirac is a thing of the past, a pathetic anachronism of the eighties,” Blair said. “Hand him over and we’ll give up the rebate.”
Opinion polls indicate that Chirac is now so hated worldwide, that even the French people would happily hand over their president’s head, with or without the UK rebate.
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