{"id":640735,"date":"2025-12-18T18:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/640735\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:32:14","slug":"uk-set-for-brexit-showdown-with-eu-over-cheaper-electricity-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/640735\/","title":{"rendered":"UK set for Brexit showdown with EU over cheaper electricity bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK and EU are set for a row over demands that Britain pay into the Brussels budget to get a Brexit reset<\/a> deal to bring down electricity bills.<\/p>\n

Brexit reset<\/a> minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told The i Paper that Britain would \u201cnot make general contributions to the EU budget\u201d in order to get a deal over the line for it to participate in the continent\u2019s internal electricity market.<\/p>\n

It is understood Thomas-Symonds was signalling the UK would reject demands to pay into EU regional \u201ccohesion\u201d funds, which channel cash into poorer areas of the bloc, as the price of an electricity deal. The Government is willing to consider fair contributions for single market access, however.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

An agreement on UK participation in the EU electricity market would allow British firms to export energy to the bloc, and is hailed by both sides as a way to drive down household bills, boost profits and investment in the industry, and bolster energy security.<\/p>\n

No deal at any price<\/p>\n

But Thomas-Symonds suggested the UK would not strike a deal at any price, having already rejected EU demands for billions of pounds to participate in the bloc\u2019s weapons rearmament fund.<\/p>\n

As well as announcing a deal on rejoining the EU\u2019s Erasmus exchange programme on Wednesday<\/a>, Thomas-Symonds and his Brussels counterpart Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said they had concluded initial talks on energy co-operation and would announce the start of negotiations next week in an exchange of letters.<\/p>\n

Also speaking to The i Paper, EU ambassador to the UK Pedro Serrano said it was \u201cquite frequent that for participation of non-EU countries and partner countries into these kind of projects, that their contribution is requested\u201d, but the exact nature of the demands were \u201cfor member states to consider\u201d.<\/p>\n

He stressed that an electricity deal would bring benefits on both sides of the Channel.<\/p>\n

\"PaymasterBrexit reset minister Nick Thomas-Symonds (James Manning\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the investment that the UK has planned on its wind farms, in notably the North Sea and also Irish Sea and elsewhere in the UK, and all the investments in green energy that the UK is foreseeing would only make full sense in view of exporting energy to the rest of Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for that, obviously, being in the same market will make this seamless and much more profitable, and actually will not only lower prices, but will also increase energy security on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus exchange deal defended<\/p>\n

Both men defended the Erasmus deal. Asked about criticism of the cost \u2013 \u00a3570m for one year in 2027 \u2013 and whether further EU demands for cash would raise questions about whether the Brexit reset was worth the money \u2013 and could even hit the UK Chancellor\u2019s spending plans \u2013 Thomas-Symonds said his would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d be the case as \u201cthis is going to bring money into the economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would not make general contributions to the EU budget \u2013 of course on something like SPS (food and agriculture) there is a cost to administration of the scheme but it is dwarfed by what it brings into the economy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be out there really making the case that it isn\u2019t just a student exchange scheme, this is about people from all different backgrounds, making the case for people all around the country from disadvantaged backgrounds being able to benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\"Article <\/a><\/p>\n

Serrano said much of the cost would come back in benefits for British participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost is based basically on the financing of British young people that will be going to continental Europe, the European Union member states, to study, do sports, professional training, vocational training. So that\u2019s what the cost is about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the price to pay for an activity, and that\u2019s the same thing that the rest of member states pay for the participation of their citizens in these kind of programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK and EU are set for a row over demands that Britain pay into the Brussels budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,1312,931,6643,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,3027,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-640735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-electricity","11":"tag-energy-bills","12":"tag-energy-prices","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-politics-news","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115742006330824721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}