The UK's Exit Charge from the EU: Insights from Modes of Accounting

Abstract

Whatever the final charge on the UK for leaving the EU, the money itself is relatively marginal to the former's public finances. However, this charge is politically sensitive and financially aggravating during one of the longest periods of fiscal austerity in the UK's history. The ways in which leaving is conceptualized have implications for any continuing financial obligations that must be managed within the context of fiscal austerity and political uncertainty. Yet, leaving the EU is a unique transaction: it is not analogous, for example, to a divorce settlement, the leaving of a club, the termination of a commercial contract, the leaving of a treaty-based international organization, or secession from a state. Analyzing the formulation of the charge in terms of the four modes of government accounting-financial reporting, statistical accounting, budgeting, and fiscal sustainability projections-enhances its fiscal transparency. It evidences not only the weakness and inconsistency of the UK's negotiating position but also the dominance in EU thinking of the short-term budgetary calculations of the 2014-20 Multiannual Financial Framework over its long-term sustainability without a large net contributor. The final amount paid by the UK will depend on the resolution of competing perspectives as well as on liabilities and contingent liabilities associated with the increasingly complex EU financial architecture.

Research of globalization influence to paradigm change in financial services

“…According to derived data following preliminary results of the research was obtained after application of mean average formula (1) as it is shown in table 3. It was 0 values for the category "V" for 2017 [11][12][13], 2018 [14][15][16][17][18] and 2019 [19][20][21][22] publishing years, but in only one case in 2020 [23] all categories had their respective values.…”

“…In 7 cases out of 20 inspected materials there was no mentioning about any technology relating to financial services as seen in table 4. Those are from article 3 [27], 4 [28], 5 [11], 6 [12], 8 [14], 9 [15] and 13 [19]. While the issue of traditional banking institution and globalization was discussed or at least touched in all 20 articles.…”

“…SHS Web of Conferences 92, 0 (2021) Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2020 In table 4 there is full representation of value per each of 20 inspected article. However, in order to better understand the tendency which is actually in line with main research question of the article, it was decided to make visualization of the data for the articles of 2010 [29], 2012 [30], 2015 [27], 2016 [28] and 2017 [11][12][13], 2018 [14][15][16][17][18], 2019 [19][20][21][22], 2020 [23][24][25][26] separately by using graphical tools of the Excel program.…”

“…According to that formula (1) all the values from data set (see table 4), in this case values (total number of words per category) derived from each article, were added up and then divided to the number of articles within the one-year range. In this way data from articles within the range of 2017 (3 articles) [11][12][13] 2018 (5 articles) [14][15][16][17][18], 2019 (4 articles) [19][20][21][22] and 2020 (4 articles) [23][24][25][26] are analyzed separately from the rest publishing years. See table 3.…”

Accounting for the Public Sector at a Time of Crisis

“…It has also been argued that austerity has: impacted on child poverty and massively increased the necessity for food banks (Mueller, ); caused major reductions in the affordable housing program (The Guardian, ); and resulted in significant reductions in local authority spending (and service provision) in areas such as refuse collection, road maintenance, and libraries (LGA, 2019). Moreover, within this Special Issue, and within a context of austerity, Heald and Wright () explore the calculation and impact of the UK's final Brexit bill for departing the EU. In particular, they examine the use of accounting (and other) numbers with respect to the UK's negotiating position relating to the possible charge.…”