Brexit will prove costly for all taxpayers.

Statement by Rolf von Hohenhaus, President of the European Taxpayers’ Association, on the British vote on Brexit:

The British people have voted to leave the European Union. Brexit is a bitter moment for the whole of Europe.

This decision will prove costly not only for the UK, but for all EU Member States. Brexit will place a burden on all taxpayers! All Member States will have to make up for the UK’s expenditure as the Union’s third-largest net contributor. At five billion euros, the UK’s contributions are equivalent to the total annual net transfer payments to Greece, the EU’s ‘sick man’.

We taxpayers must expect to make additional payments in future. At the same time, GDP growth and tax revenues will be adversely affected. Brexit will therefore leave its mark on national budgets in two respects.

The governments of all EU Member States now face the challenge of reforming the European project and its rightly criticised institutions in such a way that the community of values and its internal cohesion are preserved, and that other states do not follow the UK’s example.

The European Union is now expected to demand consequences and discipline during the withdrawal negotiations. Cherry-picking is out of the question. Anyone who leaves the EU must leave it completely. Cooperation with the UK must be completely overhauled. A Brexit rules out any further participation by the UK in any EU programmes.

Europe now has the opportunity to learn from Brexit and redefine itself in order to regain the trust of the European public and taxpayers.