Daily Express | October 28,2009

SECRET plans to seize more than £4billion a year from Britain and make its citizens pay taxes direct to Europe emerged last night.

The leaked proposals, seen by the Daily Express, state that Britain should lose the billions of pounds in rebate that was agreed by Margaret Thatcher 25 years ago.

The plans – with a foreword by European Union Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso – would cost every British family at least £155 a year.

They would also mean Brussels being given the power to dip straight into taxpayers’ pockets.

The proposals prompted fury last night.

Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois vowed they would be resisted by a Tory government.

He said: “The idea of an EU tax is a non-starter. 

“Britain is a major net contributor to the EU and it is important that we do not pay more than our share.

“A Conservative Government would defend that position robustly.”

Possible taxes suggested in the report – which could be discussed as soon as the start of the European summit in Brussels tomorrow – include levies on phone calls, flights, financial transactions or carbon emissions.

They would have to raise about £6.4billion a year – the net cost of belonging to the EU and equivalent to about £260 for every household in the UK. Mats Persson, of think-tank Open Europe, warned the plans would “rightly cause concern among British taxpayers”.

Jim McConalogue of the European Foundation, which wants to renegotiate European treaties, said: “It is clear from its so-called ‘reform’ agenda that Brussels is committed to the daylight ­robbery of the British taxpayer.”

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, branded the idea of direct taxation from Brussels an “outrage”.

He added: “Control of taxation must rest solely in the hands of democratically elected politicians who answer to British taxpayers.

“The EU has shown time and time again it is greedy for power. This is another sign they will never stop trying to grab it.”

Ruth Lea of Eurosceptic think-tank Global Vision said: “People need to wake up to the fact we are now in a superstate. 

“Year by year we are living in an integrated United States of Europe and this is just part of it.” The plan, dated October 6, would see huge reforms of the EU’s £110billion-a-year budget.

In his preface, Mr Barroso writes that the report “presents the Commission’s vision for the EU budget reform” that “should form the basis for further debate with the European Parliament and the Council”. The current budget deal runs until 2013.

The proposals would see big cuts to programmes like the Common Agricultural Policy which sees tens of billions of pounds paid to small farmers in countries like France.

But in return Britain would be expected to give up its £4.1billion a year rebate, first agreed by Mrs Thatcher in 1984. Other options being considered include taxes on communications and banks and a carbon tax which would push up the cost of fuel, flights and heating.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said that the draft report seen by the Daily Express was a “work in progress” that will be presented by the end of the year.”

A huge majority of readers backs Britain leaving the EU, the Daily Express phone poll revealed last night. Asked whether the UK should get out, an astonishing 99 per cent said yes.

Of the thousands who voted, just a few readers said the UK ought to stay in.