NEW BOOK LAUNCHED: The EU in a Nutshell

Jun 25 2012

We are delighted to present a new book, The EU in a Nutshell: Everything you wanted to know about the European Union but didn't know who to ask. Coming as the Eurozone crisis continues to bite, this is the only book to give an insight into what really goes on inside the EU.

Written by EU expert Dr Lee Rotherham and with a foreword by eminent historian Dr David Starkey, the book is a fascinating compendium of stats, quotes and EU oddities. It offers readers answers in a nutshell and ranges from the serious to the silly.

The EU in a Nutshell reveals how Britain stands out from other Member States in a number of important ways, for example:

Across the other Member States, on average 40.2 per cent have a favourable view of the European Union. In Britain, only 22 per cent have a favourable view of the European Union.

Across the other Member States, on average total exports to the European Union are equivalent to 26.0 per cent of GDP. In Britain, total exports to the European Union are only equivalent to 8.9 per cent of GDP.

The book looks at the incredible length and cost of EU regulation:

There are 70 words in the Lord’s Prayer; 271 words in the Gettysburg Address; 313 words in the Ten Commandments; and 2,509 words in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1284/2002 laying down the marketing size for hazelnuts in shell.

Estimates of the cost have been rising from Ian Milne’s 1994 estimate of £20 billion a year to a Treasury report released in response to a Freedom of Information request, based on a Dutch think tank estimate, which estimated the cost at £72 billion a year.

The book also looks at how the European Union wastes a large part of the €10 billion that British taxpayers contribute to its budget each year, for example:

98 per cent of a €3 million grant intended for irrigation and greenhouses in Spain was spent on cardboard boxes instead.

EU institutions sought a 6 per cent increase in administration costs in 2011.

The AD16 grade civil servant in charge of the European Parliament is paid €216,301.08.

Author of The EU in a Nutshell, Dr Lee Rotherham, said:

“Britain's contributions to the EU are now soaring but what's left of our rebate is coming under threat again, making membership at club EU an ever more expensive habit. Britain increasingly stands out as being locked into a bad contract and it’s time to look at a new approach to our European neighbours. With the Eurozone falling apart at the seams, there is no better time to challenge assumptions and question the deal we get out of the EU.”

Historian Dr David Starkey, who has written the foreword, said:

"Politics is where history is being made today. It is the section of track where the tramlines that have guided us to this moment in time are still being laid down. This book is an extremely useful map to those lines, both tracing their past and pointing to where they face for the future. It provides substantial and often surprising detail of what the EU is actually about, particularly in terms of the nuts and bolts of its institutions (many of which will be unfamiliar to the reader, and probably to many in Brussels itself). It also supplies a context to help the reader understand the original ambition, which in turn allows a proper judgement of the merits—or otherwise—of the whole vertiginous and, it is now clear, immensely risky project."

Across the other Member States, on average 40.2 per cent have a favourable view of the European Union. In Britain, only 22 per cent have a favourable view of the European Union.

Across the other Member States, on average total exports to the European Union are equivalent to 26.0 per cent of GDP. In Britain, total exports to the European Union are only equivalent to 8.9 per cent of GDP.

The book looks at the incredible length and cost of EU regulation:

There are 70 words in the Lord’s Prayer; 271 words in the Gettysburg Address; 313 words in the Ten Commandments; and 2,509 words in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1284/2002 laying down the marketing size for hazelnuts in shell.

Estimates of the cost have been rising from Ian Milne’s 1994 estimate of £20 billion a year to a Treasury report released in response to a Freedom of Information request, based on a Dutch think tank estimate, which estimated the cost at £72 billion a year.

The book also looks at how the European Union wastes a large part of the €10 billion that British taxpayers contribute to its budget each year, for example:

98 per cent of a €3 million grant intended for irrigation and greenhouses in Spain was spent on cardboard boxes instead.

EU institutions sought a 6 per cent increase in administration costs in 2011.

The AD16 grade civil servant in charge of the European Parliament is paid €216,301.08.

Author of The EU in a Nutshell, Dr Lee Rotherham, said:

“Britain's contributions to the EU are now soaring but what's left of our rebate is coming under threat again, making membership at club EU an ever more expensive habit. Britain increasingly stands out as being locked into a bad contract and it’s time to look at a new approach to our European neighbours. With the Eurozone falling apart at the seams, there is no better time to challenge assumptions and question the deal we get out of the EU.”

Historian Dr David Starkey, who has written the foreword, said:

"Politics is where history is being made today. It is the section of track where the tramlines that have guided us to this moment in time are still being laid down. This book is an extremely useful map to those lines, both tracing their past and pointing to where they face for the future. It provides substantial and often surprising detail of what the EU is actually about, particularly in terms of the nuts and bolts of its institutions (many of which will be unfamiliar to the reader, and probably to many in Brussels itself). It also supplies a context to help the reader understand the original ambition, which in turn allows a proper judgement of the merits—or otherwise—of the whole vertiginous and, it is now clear, immensely risky project."