Guest essay by Eric Worrall
While European leaders noisily parade their commitment to green issues on the world stage, behind the scenes the EU has quietly slashed funding for renewables, to make up the deficit which will occur when Britain leaves the EU.
Eastern Europe turns to private sector as EU clean energy budget cut
Published on 21/06/2018, 4:52pm
Czech officials warn the loss of EU structural funds and carbon market revenues leave a funding gap for renewable and energy efficiency projects
The Czech Republic may have to scrap key clean energy projects because of cuts to the EU’s next budget, a government minister has told Climate Home News.
Central and east European (CEE) states are due to lose around a quarter of their EU structural funding and 20% of Emissions Trading System (ETS) revenues next year, as the bloc looks to save money ahead of Brexit.
The two funding streams are vital for a wide variety of climate projects. Most ETS earnings are currently ploughed into national emissions-cutting initiatives.
Equally, climate-related projects received €18bn or 28% of all EU budget funding last year, with energy efficiency the largest single beneficiary, taking just over a third of the total.
The cutbacks would help to plug the roughly €12bn-sized funding hole that Brexit is expected to create – and to fund a similar amount pledged for increases to defence and migration spending.
…
There are other places fat could have been trimmed from the European budget.
For example, the European Union has a huge problem with corruption, but it seems every time official investigators get close to identifying who is stealing the EU’s money, the European Commission cancels the investigation.
Skipping another semester on anti-corruption
Author: Admin
Date: 13 June, 2018In 2014 the European Commission committed itself to take action against corruption by publishing the first EU Anti-Corruption report. However, only two years later the Commission scrapped the report in an exchange of letters between Commissioner Frans Timmermans and the European Parliament.
The decision was a political one, as it can be seen from the meeting note of European Commission. The decision was criticized by 56 civil society organisations, including Transparency International EU, who called for the EU to live up to its commitments in the fight against corruption.
The European Commission said that their efforts would continue within the European Semester process. The recommendations that are made to member states however speak a different language.
…
Read more: https://transparency.eu/skipping-anti-corruption/
It is worth nothing that people with fraud and embezzlement convictions are sometimes appointed to the European Commission, arguably the top governing body of the European Union – though I’m sure these appointees have learned from their past mistakes.
Video of Nigel Farage listing the criminal convictions and former Soviet affiliations of newly appointed European Commissioners
I guess one thing is clear from all this murky byzantine political maneuvering. When times are tough, and cuts must be made, generous green subsidies are a soft target for cash strapped politicians – even for politicians who noisily proclaim their support for renewable energy.
Funny that their commitment seems to fade with a lack of other people’s money.
Al Gore, Tom Steyer, George Soros as well as the rest of the climate elites are loaded. Maybe the EU could hit them up for a loan.
That just may be the funniest line of the century.
They should ask the Pope, first.
Don’t give him any ideas!
Sure they didn’t? And Schwarzenegger?
Oh no! I can see the basket coming my way through the pews now!
Hypocrisy is a drink well mixed with bovine fecal cubes!
yep…and this says it all
Or as Maggie Thatcher put it – “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.”
I was channeling Thatcher.
WELL……..AT LEAST IT IS A START !!!
Now……IF their economy completely “tanks” then perhaps they will be
forced to confront the ECONOMICS ahead of the IDEOLOGY and recommence
using “so called fossil fuels” to provide CHEAPER POWER for DOMESTIC and
INDUSTRIAL purposes !
WE CAN BUT HOPE ! ( as Bing Crosby was wont to say ! )
Usually government morons (especially the unelected EU leadership) will just raise taxes to cover the loss.
“The cutbacks would help to plug the roughly €12bn-sized funding hole that Brexit is expected to create – and to fund a similar amount pledged for increases to defence and migration spending.”
Interesting. Just how much is the EU spending on ‘defence’?
From the looks of it the increase is going towards transporting the migrant invasion and providing them adequate benefits, because most of them aren’t able to find work.
‘defence’?….every first world country on this planet is being attacked by con artist foreigners
They said “defense & migration” spending (combined).
My guess lumped together…
20% defense administration
60% migration administration
5% defense infrastructure
10% migration infrastructure
5% petty cash/discresionary
(Also, can we get any anti-Brexit folks explain in more detail just where the shortage is coming from)
“Also, can we get any anti-Brexit folks explain in more detail just where the shortage is coming from”
I guess that EU shortage comes about because Britain can now keep more of its own money, instead of sending it to the bureaucrats in Brussels.
The British government will now have to figure out how to spend those extra billions of pounds. Of course, that’s a job government officials know how to do. They know how to spend money. They’ll probably spend it on more windmills.
Some of the money will need to go to replace some aspects of the existing bureacracy. When you have to do your own admin after decades of havimg it done for you there’s a cost. Unless the UK plans to scrap farm subsidies that money will be spent in the UK as well.
It will be a while before the benefits of Brexit can be quantified – if they exist at all.
Well………..EUROPE , SCANDINAVIA and ALL the NATO COUNTRIES
had better get used to the idea of spending MORE on DEFENCE !
POTUS Donald Trump has stated the HE IS FED UP WITH THE U.S.
DEFENDING THEM AT U.S. EXPENSE and THAT that WILL HAVE TO
STOP and THEY WILL HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE U.S.if they want
them to continue that role.
SEEMS FAIR ENOUGH.
Britain was the “World Policeman” for many years UNTIL the U.S. took on
the role ( not altruistically I hasten to add ! ) and JUST LOOK AT ALL
THE THANKS THEY GOT FOR THAT !!
France is still the policeman in too many places. I don’t remember when we have stopped a stabilization intervention.
Oh dear, that will not go over well at the next Climatepalooza event come December, in Katowice Poland (a city built on heavy industry and coal-mining – oh, the ironies!).
How do these people manage to get into the cash rich positions that Mr Farage describes. If I tried anything like that I would expect to go to jail and have a ruined reputation for life.
Will someone tell me the secrets that these people seem to possess so I can get on the band wagon! 😉
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
They never have to face any kind of popular vote. Voters tend to take notice of convictions for fraud and embezzlement and vote for other candidates, but even though the EU commission wields enormous power, most voters don’t know who the EU commissioners are, let alone what crimes they have committed.
They have records because they took the fall for their masters. As such, they are reliable agents for the kleptocracy.
They are all friends of the Clintons.
The younger and more attractive ladies quite possibly are.
Others, less so – unless they are connected to other climate justice warrior [felon].
Auto
I determined long ago that anytime there is a large collection of funds someone is going to figure out how to steal at least a large portion of them.
The CC charade is slowly unraveling at the seams. Solar companies in several countries going out of business and taking their subsidies with them. Electricity prices skyrocketing and reliable service replaced with beg borrow and steal plans that require back up diesel generators to give them the same level of service they had 100 years ago. Fossil fuel use increasing across the board instead of retreating. Nary one of the multitude of scaremonger threats have materialized. Yet they persist and the politicians and MSM continue to support them.
Agree with you markl…to an extent. Hopefully the subsidy nonsense will collapse and the money flow will be directed without the embarrassing AGW influence.
However…Always in need of funding, climate scientists found it necessary to exploit speculations that support the possibility of large climate change. So from an effect that amounts to a few tenths of a degree we get all this thermageddon humidification apocalypse nonsense. The concept has been oversold, AGW doesn’t visibly register on the thermometer, it’s a hill of beans
Most of the alarmist rhetoric disguised as climate science is telling. There is no proof.
And there are many, influential scientists, politicians, and various other personalities, who have put their personal credibility on the line by making statements on the absolute certainty of the AGW/Climate Change issue. It is going to be very difficult for them to admit they were wrong as people in high profile public positions tend to be more narcissistic than the general population. They believe they are smarter, they believe they are better informed, and they believe their own judgement to be better than that of the average person. For them to say that those whom they called “deniers” were actually correct is not going to happen.
So it may take some time. The science will win in the end and the climate alarm issue will find its place alongside all the other scary hobgoblins that have come and gone.
M.W.Plia………..I HOPE THAT YOU ARE VINDICATED !
Today the SUPERMARKET STOPPED ISSUING
“CARRY-HOME PLASTIC BAGS”
and stopped selling PLASTIC DRINKING STRAWS.
Plastic is NOW the NEW CO2 !
I strongly suspect that due to many years of successful “green-washing”
in our schools and universities the current generation
will facilitate the” ECOLOGICAL CAMPAIGN against the HUMAN RACE”
to slide from one ECOLOGICAL CASH COW to the NEXT !
“It’s to save the fish and the Planet………etc….”
No ! It’s NOT !
“…. in the end and the climate alarm issue will find its place
alongside all the other scary hobgoblins………”
THIS is ONE of “their” NEW HOBGOBLINS !
Very clever of “THEM” to APPROPRIATE ( steal ! )the WORD “GREEN ”
and pretend that “THEIR” concern is ECOLOGICAL
because it is very difficult to argue against such a fundamentally
admirable cause……………..IT IS JUST THE WAY THAT “THEY”
HAVE FASHIONED IT INTO A “WEAPON” THAT I OBJECT TO IT !
THIS ENABLES “THEM” TO MAINTAIN THE MOMENTUM , so that
when AGW and CAGW and eventually CC FAIL , “they” will have
moved on and abandoned those “causes”and be seen to be STILL
pursuing PLANET-SAVING-CAUSES………………….and
“we” are still on the back-foot fighting to expose “their” deceit
and fanatical genocidal , misanthropy !…
..and “THEY” are still harvesting CARBON CREDITS
and establishing the next scam……………meanwhile,
ALL the bureaucracy will resist any attempts to un-wind
and END their own “cushy” little sinecures !!!!!!
Gore REALLY chose WELL which FINANCIAL SIDE to back !
Even “Al Capone” and “Ned Kelly” and “Alan Bond” are
today GIVE THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT and
regarded as naughty rogues RATHER than the
dreadful criminals the actually were !
M.W.Plia………..I HOPE THAT YOU ARE VINDICATED !
Today the SUPERMARKET STOPPED ISSUING
“CARRY-HOME PLASTIC BAGS”
and stopped selling PLASTIC DRINKING STRAWS.
Plastic is NOW the NEW CO2 !
I strongly suspect that due to many years of successful “green-washing”
in our schools and universities the current generation
will facilitate the” ECOLOGICAL CAMPAIGN against the HUMAN RACE”
to slide from one ECOLOGICAL CASH COW to the NEXT !
“It’s to save the fish and the Planet………etc….”
No ! It’s NOT !
“…. in the end and the climate alarm issue will find its place
alongside all the other scary hobgoblins………”
THIS is ONE of “their” NEW HOBGOBLINS !
Very clever of “THEM” to APPROPRIATE ( steal ! )the WORD “GREEN ”
and pretend that “THEIR” concern is ECOLOGICAL
because it is very difficult to argue against such a fundamentally
admirable cause……………..IT IS JUST THE WAY THAT “THEY”
HAVE FASHIONED IT INTO A “WEAPON” THAT I OBJECT TO IT !
THIS ENABLES “THEM” TO MAINTAIN THE MOMENTUM , so that
when AGW and CAGW and eventually CC FAIL , “they” will have
moved on and abandoned those “causes”and be seen to be STILL
pursuing PLANET-SAVING-CAUSES………………….and
“we” are still on the back-foot fighting to expose “their” deceit
and fanatical genocidal , misanthropy !…
..and “THEY” are still harvesting CARBON CREDITS
and establishing the next scam……………meanwhile,
ALL the bureaucracy will resist any attempts to un-wind
and END their own “cushy” little sinecures !!!!!!
Gore REALLY chose WELL which FINANCIAL SIDE to back !
Even “Al Capone” and “Ned Kelly” are “LEGENDS”
today and GIVEN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT and
regarded as naughty rogues RATHER than the
dreadful criminals they actually were !
GORE with his $ Millions will , no doubt , gain
similar status……..eventually !
MODERATOR ……..HOW LONG DO WE GET TO EDIT AN ARTICLE PLEASE ?
In the previous release of the software, it was 15 minutes. I haven’t heard anyone say if that time limit has changed.
Trevor
As soon as you stop shouting?
As they say in Poland, “tupha chitski!”
Wait – what? Money’s disappearing (again)? The EU’s brilliant plans are crumbling? Renewables didn’t work, after all?
Huh. How come no one over there saw that coming?
The purpose of the EU for France is to surrender dominion to Germany in exchange for subsidising French farmers. This makes a huge economic block.
Everyone else gets paid off in economic stability, a lack of trade tariffs and avoiding being invaded by Teutons.
The UK thinks it has a Globalised market and a Navy and so it hopes it can cope with the trade issues.
No-one else can take the risk.
So everyone else has to take the EU policy on climate change.
Or at least they have to give it lip service.
“EU Climate Hypocrites”
I can’t see what the beef is here. Why is WUWT wailing about a possible cut in renewables subsidy?
But in fact, if you read the article, it is all about Czechia complaining about a cut in “structural funding”. This is basically the EU redistributing internally to help countries catch up when they are behind. It may be because there is less funding available because of Brexit (what else should they do but cut expenditure?). But it says “because of reduced funds and the country’s economic growth”. IOW, they needed the help before, now not so much.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nigel-farage-will-132000-year-11668239
Nick the beef is in the bovine fecal cubes
There are two types of contrasting articles in this excellent blog – those of Wilis and those of Eric Worral. Ignorance when blending politics with the themes of this site is glaring. First, this is an article refers only to Czech Republic (however i personally agree that subsidies to the so called clean energy should be extinct). Where is the prove that UK is going to cause a 12b deficit in the EU? The value was, in 2016, of 5b. UK contributes but also receives money from the EU. I’m not sure that, after leaving, the balance is compensated in customs tariffs and other losses that UK will be facing with Brexit. Maybe that’s why every single recent polls show that, in a new referendum, the Brexit would be reversed. The cherry on the top of the cake is putting a video of Nick Farage … amazing. This individual basically lived the life and retired milking money at the expense of the EU. It’s what we usually call a Goofy (and no, it’s not the friendly disney character). Stick with climate please!!!
That’s all pretty much rubbish. The UK contributes a net £9 billion a year to the EU in direct contributions, and a further £2-3 billion in various other guises such as loans to the ECB. So there’s the deficit. The money the U.K. “Receives” is money the U.K. pays.
Customs tariffs are simply a tax paid by consumers and so not an outside source of funds.
What other losses will the U.K. make exactly and how will they change the EU’s deficit?
And the polls show nothing of the sort – the latest for example showed Remain ahead only within the margin of error.
As for Farage, he has always been utterly open that he campaigns to do away with his job. And since the EU has no money, it is at the expense of UK taxpayers who, once given the chance, took him at his word.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/12/nigel-farage-eu-salary-docked-claim-misspent-public-funds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1474121/EU-whistleblower-in-130m-case-is-fired.html
1) The Guardian
2) Politics as usual, punish those who rock the boat.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nigel-farage-will-132000-year-11668239
How the H*** are you supposed to spend other people’s money if they leave? How dare the Brits spend their OWN money, what are they thinking?
Same thing is happening in the U.S. – donor states supporting the outrageous spending of the liberal states. I wonder who is going to be left holding the bag when California goes bankrupt because of their pension deficit, their welfare spending, Obama Care spending, etc.
I actually wouldn’t care so much if the politicians would learn a lesson from it and start behaving responsibly, but they never do… They (as in their party and policies) just move to another city or another state and bankrupt those too.
They have already ruined Colorado. It’s a disgusting display of hedonism, homelessness, and heroin/meth abuse. Oh, astronomical home prices (although I did cash out fairly well recently), increasingly Draconian laws and auto fees, just backwards Satanism. Seriously. These leftists are a most foul breed of hateful, angry degenerates.
Hypocrites of the worst type
And their Marxist mouthpiece ACLU just officially pooped on free speech. They will wake up, without arms, to see themselves pressed into camps. Me, I’ve got the means to get out of Dodge with my arms, supplies, and shelter already in place. Let them suffer the the fate they foam at the mouth hoping for us. The Universe is not forgiving
The ACLU, while I disagreed with them on many issues, I used to believe that they at least had integrity to follow the constitution, even when it led to defending those they didn’t like.
Unfortunately the ACLU has decided that consistency is more important than integrity. Going forward they will always defend those who agree with them politically, regardless what the constitution says.
The moonbeams that are leaving California .. you can only guess the reasons…. not a stretch here… are settling in Colorado, and the demented politicians following, where the green policies worked so well, are fostering their ill advised platforms.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/16/nigel-farage-skint-ukip-4m-townhouse
Does Farage pay rent for the space he’s occupying in your head?
MarkW
He couldn’t afford the massive amounts of unoccupied real estate there-within.
Just a general comment, given all the fanfare surrounding the whole human-caused-climate-change mania, exemplified by the latest stream of articles at WUWT:
I think that a new spawn website of WUWT should come into existence to handle ONLY these sorts of stories: The site should be called … WTFUWT = “Watts the F Up With That”
Robert,
I find the present mix entertaining and enlightening.
What could replicate that?
A troll or two fewer – I could live with that.
But so much science and politics here – lovely.
Might I be a little – you know – SAD??
Auto – I am what I am, I guess.
The word “renewable” is a misnomer when applied to ambient energy sources such as wind and solar energy. The more accurate term is ambient energy. In Australia the official term is now “intermittent” generation.
It is becoming quite clear in Germany that the wind turbines will not be replaced; proving they are indeed unrenewable. There is a growing realisation that buffering ambient energy to get on-demand supply is very expensive.
“In Australia the official term is now “intermittent” generation.”
That’s funny!
Wind and solar are such a dead end! A Fool’s Errand put in motion by the CAGW Big Lie.
…For example, the European Union has a huge problem with corruption, but it seems every time official investigators get close to identifying who is stealing the EU’s money, the European Commission cancels the investigation….
Yes. Funny, that. And, you know, every time they hold a corruption investigation, it gets stopped at the last stage, and the estimated amount of money lost to corruption rises by a few million……
Brits will remember Neil Kinnock, ex-leader of the Labour Party, whose reward for repeated failure to get elected to government was a cosy stint as one of the UK’s Commissioners. One of his supposed roles was to clamp down on EU corruption. He was so successful they made him a vice-president…
Beyond that, anyone who points out the corruption is punished.
They haven’t gotten to Russian levels where disruptive elements find themselves unexpectedly dead, but it’s heading in that direction.
Perhaps the next time a corruption investigation is initiated, they investigators should start with investigating the European Commission (start at the top as they say).
though I’m sure these appointees have learned from their past mistakes.
Oh i’m sure they have learned lots. Like how to avoid being caught twice
It is often said that the EU has not had its accounts signed off for more than twenty years. This is not true. So long as the errors in the accounts do not amount to more than 4% of expenditure the Court of Auditors will sign them off.
In 2016 the EU spent €136 billion.
The Court of Auditors said the EU’s accounts in 2016: “present, in all material respects, a true and fair view of the EU’s financial results for the year and its assets and liabilities at the end of the year.… We were therefore able to give a clean opinion on the reliability of (i.e. ‘sign off’) the accounts, as we have done every year since 2007.
But it did find that 3.1% of EU spending was subject to error. This is slightly lower than in previous years, but as long as the estimated error is above a threshold of 2%, it’s considered “material”.
However, the “entitlement payments” (rewards for meeting conditions, rather than payments for costs incurred) were found to have an error level below the 2% threshold.
This meant that, for the first time since 1994, the accounts were given a “qualified”, rather than “adverse”, opinion. The auditors found that: “A significant part of the 2016 expenditure audited was not affected by a material level of error”.
So the court of auditors have signed off the EU accounts as “true and fair” but qualified them by asserting that there were errors amounting to 3.1% of expenditure.
What finance director would not give his eye teeth for such amenable audotrs?
Any private organization with accounting error rates that high, year in year out, would go out of business, and somebody would probably end up in jail.
When it comes to government, the only ones who are punished are those who complain about the corruption.
Quite right they have. They have learned that there is usually no penalty for getting caught.
And I think the UK should leave the EU every year if it leads to a cut in funding for the global warmers.
The mere fact that Britain was pumping so many billions into the EU is by itself, sufficient reason for Britain to get out of the EU.
MarkW
I returned form a visit yo Scotland today. I was in the Campsie Fells, a range of now extinct volcano’s.
I drove there from Kent, along the unimpressive A74 into Scotland, then round the Campsies (across the Crow Road no less) and was incredibly unimpressed at the investment made in these areas by the EU, or, indeed, the SNP.
Scotland is a badly deprived area of the UK, and that was the stated intention of the EU, to bring prosperity and infrastructure to similar areas.
I really don’t see it in Scotland other than, perhaps, in city centres where the wealth is anyway.
And the SNP want to remain in the EU?
I don’t get it.
https://transparency.eu/skipping-anti-corruption/
It is worth nothing –> noting
Farage is a real character! The EU is starting to come apart. The new Italian govt has caused a big impact. If France goes the same way, the EU is finished.
It’s a little known fact that Poland is subsidized by virtually the same amount as UK’s net contribution. So to balance the books after Brexit the solution is quite obvious.