Britain has avoided being dragged into a looming £700billion EU debt mountain as Brussels’ borrowing continues to grow since Brexit, new analysis shows.
The report by Facts4EU and shared exclusively with GB News, exposes the extent of the EU Commission’s borrowing, which British taxpayers would have been on the hook for helping to pay off had the UK still been a member of the bloc.
According to the think tank, the Commission had only borrowed on a small scale prior to Covid, but its total budget for indebtedness has since ballooned to €800billion euros (nearly £700billion pounds).
Figures show that EU borrowing shot up in 2021 and has increased over most years since.
After issuing just €41billion in the second half of 2020, annual EU borrowing jumped to more than €150billion a year and has continued to climb, reaching over €220billion by 2025.
Ex-Tory MP, Sir John Redwood, said EU borrowing is “sticking plaster on the wound that fails to heal”.
He explained: “The EU has a failing economic model of high spending, high taxes, and excessive regulation.
“It places big barriers to trade with cheaper and more innovative producers outside its Customs Union.
Figures show EU borrowing jumped significantly between 2020 and 2021
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FACTS4EU
“This has impeded growth for most of its member states, leading to high unemployment, high benefit costs and dear energy prices which cripple industry.
“Realising many of the countries in the EU already have high debt levels that threaten the stability of the single currency zone, the EU has turned to borrowing much more money at EU level to subsidise the worst-performing EU economies.
“This makes countries like Italy and Greece ever more dependent on the EU, requiring their obedience to its rules. The EU has fallen further and further behind the USA, with per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) only one half the US level.
“EU borrowing is sticking plaster on the wound that fails to heal.”
According to analysis by Facts4EU, the Eu’s total budget for indebtedness has ballooned to €800billion euros
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FACTS4EU
Sir John estimates that if the UK had voted to remain in the EU, the country’s share of the current debt budget would have been about 15 per cent, or €120billion of the €800billion currently planned.
He added: “Rachel Reeves’s black hole would be a lot bigger were we still paying the increasing budget contributions demanded by EU membership.
“The UK balance sheet would be a lot more stretched with our liability for extra EU borrowing.
“We would be paying for EU debt to be mainly spent in other countries on things we did not approve.
“As one of the richer European economies we would be paying much more in than we got back out.”
According to analysis by Facts4EU, in just one week in January, the European Commission announced a series of new spending commitments that further add to the EU’s growing debt-funded programmes.
These include money for foreign aid, military support, and national spending plans across multiple countries.
The largest item is a €90billion package for Ukraine, spread over this year and next, with two-thirds earmarked for military assistance.
Alongside this, the EU has approved fresh funding for countries such as Lithuania and Slovakia under the NextGeneration EU scheme, new macro-financial assistance to Egypt and continued aid to countries in the Middle East and Balkans.
Figures show the EU spending on announcements made just this month
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FACTS4EU
Labour has repeatedly been accused of betraying Brexit over decisions made, which have increased ties with the EU, including through rejoining the EU Erasmus student exchange scheme.
The UK left the scheme, which will allow young people to study, train or gain work experience from January 2027 – under Boris Johnson, who argued it did not offer value for money.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said last month Labour has “consistently undermined the result of the 2016 referendum and remain obsessed with dragging Britain back under the control of Brussels”.
Sir John said if the UK was to rejoin the EU, it would “sign us up to crippling annual membership costs”.
Sir John Redwood said if the UK was to rejoin the EU it would ‘sign us up to crippling annual membership costs’
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GB NewsHe said: “The UK policy of closer alignment with the slow-growth, over-borrowed EU is a disastrous idea.
“Getting closer by Agreement comes at a big cost of more financial and other contributions to a bloated EU budget.
“Rejoining would sign us up to crippling annual membership costs and to the burden of all this EU debt.”