Fractional increase in Netherlands’ contribution to the EU

The information on the Court of Audit’s EU webpages has been updated. It can now be seen that on balance the Netherlands paid €6.9 billion to the European Union in 2021.

It contributed more than €9.5 billion and received over €2.6 billion from Brussels in the form of grants. The net payment for 2021 was equal to 0.82% of the country’s gross national income (GNI). This is fractionally higher than in 2020 and distinctly more than in the years before then. The European Commission applies a different calculation method and puts the net payment for 2021 at €4.1 billion (0.48% of GNI). The EU budget is financed for 92% by contributions from the 27 member states. A third of the member states contribute more to the budget than they receive from the EU. EU expenditure in 2021 totalled €227 billion. Some 20% of the expenditure related to the member states’ recovery and resilience plans (also known as the RRF), a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a significant part of Next Generation EU.