LONDON, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Britain contributed 25 billion U.S. dollars to the European Union last year, but received billions of U.S. dollars back in rebates and grants, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Tuesday.
ONS statisticians put the financial relationship between Britain and the EU under the microscope, with the cost of membership continuing to be a major talking point as the terms of Brexit are negotiated.
But there is a difference to what Britain says it pays, compared to what the EU insists Britain contributed.
Whatever the total amount sent to Brussels in 2016 it is a fraction of the 1,076 billion U.S. dollars the British government spent on all aspects of public spending, the ONS statistics show.
ONS said it has looked at the numbers using its own data that account for the UK's official transactions with EU institutions, as well as data from the European Commission.
It took the total amounts paid, and then subtracted funds paid back to Britain under various EU rebate schemes.
ONS said a 6.64-billion-U.S.-dollar rebate from Brussels brought the net payment to 18.5 billion U.S. dollars transferred to Brussels was not the end of the story.
The figures show that a further 5.8 billion U.S. dollars came back to the British public sector and private sector in credits in 2016. That took Britain's net contribution to the EU last year to 9.4 billion pounds, or 12.5 billion U.S. dollars -- roughly half of the total gross contribution it made.
ONS said some have argued that there are other payments that should be taken into account. Money from the EU also comes back to the British private sector, for example to fund research in British universities. ONS data does not separately identify direct flows from the EU to the UK private sector.
Using the latest available figures published by the European Commission, Britain's average annual net contribution to Brussels for the years 2012 to 2016 was 8.1 billion pounds, or 10.75 billion U.S. dollars.
ONS says this figure is arguably a more complete picture of the money that flows between Britain and the EU.
Using that figure, ONS say it means Britain's membership of the EU bloc costs it 207 million U.S. dollars every week, or 163 U.S. dollars a year for every man, woman and child in Britain.
And when the sums are added up it accounts for just one percent of the total British government spending.
A single purchase
