{"id":1971,"date":"2016-06-15T15:04:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T15:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2022-03-02T11:11:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T11:11:43","slug":"is-northern-ireland-a-net-contributor-to-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/economy\/is-northern-ireland-a-net-contributor-to-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Northern Ireland a net contributor to the EU?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This claim is inaccurate. We estimate that Northern Ireland was a net recipient of \u00a374 million in the 2014\/15 financial year. Others have claimed that Northern Ireland is a recipient of \u00a358 million, but this fails to take into account the requirement for match funding under the PEACE Programme and the exact value of farm subsidies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In a report<\/a> published on 20 May 2016, the Leave.EU campaign claimed that  Northern Ireland is a net contributor to the EU, and Stormont would have saved \u00a367 million in 2014\/15<\/a> if the United Kingdom (UK) had not been in the European Union (EU). This figure was calculated by subtracting their estimates of the funding Northern Ireland received in the 2014\/15 financial year from Northern Ireland\u2019s approximate share of the UK\u2019s overall contribution to the EU in 2014\/15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northern Ireland and its contribution to the EU budget<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that the UK is currently a net contributor to the EU budget, even though the \u00a39.9 billion figure<\/a> cited in the Leave.EU report is an exaggeration. The House of Commons\u2019s figure for the same year is \u00a38.5 billion<\/a> (p 9). (Full Fact<\/a> released an analysis<\/a> with a clear breakdown of why this is the most accurate figure.) When including EU grants dedicated to the private sector, which have ranged between \u00a31-1.5 billion a year<\/a> (p 10) over the last few years, the final contribution is closer to \u00a37-7.5 billion. The European Commission has stated that with the rebate and all EU grants taken into account, the UK contributed \u00a37.258 billion<\/a> in 2013, a value in line with these findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the claim that Northern Ireland is a net contributor to the EU is false. Leave.EU made this calculation by estimating Northern Ireland\u2019s share of the UK\u2019s overall contribution of  \u00a318.8  billion in 2014\/15 by proportion of the population, amounting to \u00a3500 million. They claimed that over the course of that year the European Union contributed \u00a3300 million through farm subsides, and another \u00a3133 million in structural funds. By subtracting this \u00a3433 million of receipts, their result is a deficit of \u00a367 million pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their methodology has several issues. Most significantly, by failing to take into consideration the rebate that the UK received<\/a> in 2015, the Leave campaign overestimated Northern Ireland\u2019s contribution by approximately \u00a3125 million. This alone would make Northern Ireland a recipient of EU funding. Through its own investigation the BBC discovered this inconsistency, concluding that Northern Ireland was a recipient of \u00a358 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does the funding go?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave.EU is not far from the truth when stating that Northern Ireland receives approximately \u00a3133 million a year<\/a> through Structural Funds from the EU for the duration of this funding cycle (2014-2020). Structural Funds focus on a wide variety of programmes, ranging from regional economic development, to encouraging cross-border cooperation. Due to the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland, the EU has dedicated funds towards the PEACE Programme, a pot of money valued at \u00a3180.3 million (at 2014\/15 financial year exchange rates<\/a>) between 2014 and 2020. The Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government are responsible for matching 15% of this funding<\/a>. In reality, the actual value of Structural Funds comes out to \u00a3128.9 million per year<\/a> for this funding cycle when using last year\u2019s average exchange rates. This would bring down the subvention total to \u00a354 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a majority of the EU funding is received directly by farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)<\/a>. The Detail<\/a> has published an investigation<\/a> of the figures from 2013\/14, in which they analyzed the direct payments received by farmers during that year. They concluded that 38,000 payments<\/a> from the EU totalled \u00a3349.4 million<\/a> in subsidies. We applied their methodology to the data<\/a> that the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)<\/a> has released for 2015, and while subsidies have decreased, they still stood at \u00a3319.8 million. The Leave.EU campaign estimated agricultural subsidies from last year to be \u00a3300 million. Consequently, their claim is off by another \u00a320 million, making Northern Ireland a recipient of \u00a374 million in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: “Euros” by Images_of_Money licensed by CC BY 2.0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

FactCheckNI is Northern Ireland\u2019s first and only dedicated independent fact-checking service and a verified signatory<\/a> to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles<\/a>. You can learn more about about FactCheckNI<\/a>, our personnel<\/a>, what our article verdicts<\/a> mean, and how to submit a claim<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This claim is inaccurate. We estimate that Northern Ireland was a net recipient of \u00a374 million in the 2014\/15 financial year. Others have claimed that Northern Ireland is a recipient of \u00a358 million, but this fails to take into account the requirement for match funding under the PEACE Programme and the exact value of farm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,29],"tags":[45],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs Northern Ireland a net contributor to the EU? - FactCheckNI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/economy\/is-northern-ireland-a-net-contributor-to-the-eu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Northern Ireland a net contributor to the EU? - FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This claim is inaccurate. 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