Update 2 | Malta seeks clarification on €13 million top-up to EU budget

Malta is being asked to top up its contribution to the EU budget by €13 million, MaltaToday has confirmed.

Finance minister Edward Scicluna confirmed that the request to top up the EU contribution is down to positive economic growth being registered since 2013.

The adjustment is a one-time payment.

Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and Latvia are also being asked for a budget top-up of between €6.5 million and €340 million.

But the opposition of the United Kingdom, which is being asked for a €2.1 billion contribution, has promoted the Council of Ministers to pause discussions so that finance ministers seek clarifications.

"This is a technical procedure that is done annually.... the EU Council has decided to press the pause button so that finance ministers meet and seek clarifications," Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

"Malta is not surprised that the EU has asked for this top-up and we factored in the sum in our draft budgetary plan. But we are still seeking clarifications on how the EC calculated this figure," Muscat said.

Malta will benefit from €1.1 billion up until 2020 under the multiannual financial framework, but it pays annual contributions to the EU budget in VAT receipts and customs duties.

The EU budget is largely financed by ‘own resources’ which are based on customs duties on imports from outside the EU and sugar levies, VAT, and contributions from each Member State according to the share of its gross national income (GNI) in EU GNI, which form the largest source of income to the EU budget (76 % in 2012).

A UK official was quoted by Bloomberg Business saying that the United Kingdom is opposing paying an extra €2.1 billion, together with the Netherlands which was presented with a request for an extra €642 million. “I want to know the details,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels on Friday after the first day’s summit deliberations. “The only thing I know is that changes have taken place in the accounts. That it happens doesn’t come as a surprise for us. But what does surprise us are the very huge amounts.”

The Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb (see video at 1:49) said that the EU "was not an accounting exercise... the UK is a rich country who has a rebate, unlike Finland, regardless of its economic power."