Answer

In the draft budget laws passed each year by the French Parliament, the budget line retracing the contribution of our country to the policies of the European Union amounts to around 20 billion euros.

However, it is the “gross” contribution – if we subtract what France receives in European funds, the French budget feeds Europe to the tune of 9 billion euros – which is both much (the budget of the Ministry of Culture is for example 10 billion) and little.

In fact, on a purely accounting basis, most independent bodies – like the Banque de France – evaluate the “cost of non-Europe” at several tens of billions of euros, in particular through the “single market” (ie. the fact that common standards and a lack of taxes allow much more trade than in the absence of European construction.)

Moreover, France is the second largest contributor, behind Germany (which pays 14 billion) and before, so far, the United Kingdom, which paid about 7 billion.

However, the especially sophisticated, and reasonably opaque, system of calculating national contributions, and especially the low weight of so-called “own resources” (taxes directly levied by the EU, and not endowments of states) encourage most stakeholders to want to fundamentally reform EU funding.