British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday insisted that he would not pay an EU bill for an additional 2.1 billion euro (US$2.65 billion) contribution to the EU coffers at a time of increasing pressure at home for the nation to leave the bloc.
Thumping his fist in frustration, Cameron said “people should be in no doubt: as an important contributor to this organization, we are not suddenly going to get out our checkbook and write a check for 2 billion euros. It is not happening.”
Cameron said asking Britain for a top-up of some 20 percent in its contributions on short notice “is an appalling way to behave. We are not paying that bill on the first of December.”
The Netherlands too has been asked for a big top-up, of 642 million euros, which Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem labeled as “extremely surprising, unpleasantly surprising.”
The EU Commission said the demand stemmed from the fact that the economies of some nation, like Britain, have grown more than expected at the start of the year.
Contributions are made according to economic size.
“This should not have come as a surprise” to Britain and other nations, since it was based on national statistics, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. “We have been careful not to politicize the process we have been asked to administer” by the member states.
Cameron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte already discussed a common protest at the EU summit, which ended on Friday.
The Netherlands too is facing an increasingly vocal anti-EU camp.
“We are not going to take this lying down,” Dijsselbloem said.
Cameron said EU finance ministers would discuss the issue at an emergency meeting he had called for.
A longtime reluctant member of the EU, Britain has seen a surge in the popularity of the UKIP party, which wants to get Britain out of the EU, claiming its bureaucracy is profligate.
“The EU is like a thirsty vampire feasting on UK taxpayers’ blood. We need to protect the innocent victims, who are us,” UKIP leader Nigel Farage said.
The request for the budget top up comes at a time when Cameron has been telling his EU counterparts how well the British economy is doing in the face of the flagging fortunes on the continent, where even Germany is facing sagging growth.
Official figures on Friday showed Britain’s economic recovery is continuing despite a gloomy world environment.
GDP grew 0.7 percent in the three months through last month compared with the previous three months, remaining among the strongest growth rates among developed economies.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the figures show that Britain “continues to lead the pack in an increasingly uncertain global economy.”
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS