THE EU (or the eu - smallprint)

While PR firms rate little above estate agents, bankers and politicians, the EU should seriously think about hiring one.  Of course, no time is ever good to announce that some countries will pay more than others into the EU budget and with 28 members, there will always be a sensitive local issue somewhere in the club (in the British case, it's the Rochester and Strood by-election).  Then again, few member states have a newspaper industry which is broadly loathing of the EU and all its works.  Even The Guardian feels obliged to pick up the issue to retain 'credibility' on the EU discussion and thus, taking its cues from the press, the BBC too runs on the story.
The headline that the UK has to pay £1.7bn (2.1bn euros) extra to the EU budget by 1st December because its economic recovery has been better than expected since 1995.  Eurostat said it had previously undervalued the size of Britain's 'black economy' and concluded it was actually bigger than thought, thus the UK must make extra payments.  It's a ridiculous premise given that by its nature, the UK government does not receive tax from the black economy yet must pay for its success, yet it was agreed by the UK in the past probably to combat perceived corruption levels in East-Central Europe.  Hoisted by one's own petard indeed.
Of course, the agitprop of the EU-sceptic/phobic newspapers gives plenty of column inches to their EU rejectionist friends and prefers not just to not read the small print but deny it to its readers as well (I checked).  To restate, that's not news-reporting, that's propaganda.  To be sure, I had to read all the way down to the bottom of The Guardian article to find that the 'budget amendment proposal' concerning an extra £1.7bn is just one of seven such proposals on the table.  The results of the other half dozen calculations could actually see the UK budget cut - will this get recorded in the right-wing press?  Maybe the sceptics will put it in 'news in brief' on page 18 (on the 'invisible' side of the newspaper), the phobics will ignore it altogether.  They must have got a shock when a poll showed that were a referendum to be held tomorrow 56% would vote to stay in and only 36% would opt to leave.  As the commander of the second Death Star in Star Wars said, they must be thinking, "we shall redouble our efforts!"
So far from being a charter that penalises the successful (including Greece!) while rewarding the indolent and inefficient (fingers being pointed at France), it could be quite the opposite when the whole package is announced.  Moreover, why shouldn't the rich help out the poor to prevent dangerous imbalances that lead to strife (strife being very bad qua economic success).  Ultimately, this budget has to be agreed by all 28 member states and the UK will surely be able to marshal some allies (from governments who don't want to give rejectionists in the main governing party an open goal) to give its position a veneer of respectability.  The only slightly unfair thing is that German historic fear of inflation has hamstrung the European Central Bank's ability to fight the sovereign debt crisis that engulfed the Eurozone and by suppressing growth, Germany would get rewarded under the headline calculation.  But to emphasise again, it just one of a combined seven proposals.