The UK rebate means that its contribution is lowered by a reimbursement. The UK government argues that the reasons for this arrangement introduced in 1985 (and subsequently modified on a number of occasions) remain valid. Based on a complex statistical calculation, it changes every year (see table 1). It was worth €3.8 billion in 2012, reducing the UK contribution by around 22% to €13.5 billion. Three Member States (France, Italy and Spain) funded 60% of the UK rebate. Austria, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands benefit from a permanent reduction in their contributions to the financing of the UK rebate, paying one-quarter of their calculated share. The same four countries also enjoyed one or more temporary correction mechanisms for 2007-13. Their estimated effect on the draft budget for 2012 ranged from €95 million for Austria to €1.6 billion for Germany. For 2007-13, several countries obtained exceptions for the expenditure side of the budget , such as resources earmarked for projects, regions or Member States. Despite appearing less significant in size, these additional corrections for expenditure contributed to the overall opacity of the system.
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