Here's how much each EU nation puts in and takes out of the EU budget

LONDON - One of the biggest political stories of 2016 has been Brexit and much of the debate both before and after June's vote to leave the European Union has focused around whether Britain will be financially better or worse off after leaving the EU.

The "Vote Leave" campaign famously emblazoned their battle bus with a figure of £350 million, claiming that was what the UK sent to Brussels each week and that sum could be spent on the NHS instead. The figure was subsequently discredited, as it was a gross sum and didn't take into account the fact that Britain also benefits from EU grants and funding.

However, a recent House of Commons briefing paper on the UK's funding from the EU shows that Britain does, in fact, put more into the EU budget than it takes out. The UK has averaged around €12 billion in EU funding each year between 2011-15 but over that same period made an average net contribution of €15 billion.

Britain is one of nine EU members that are net contributors to the European Union's budget (meaning they put in more money than they take out.) Here's the House of Commons chart showing each member states net contributions against their EU funding:

The fact that Britain is a net contributor means that, in theory, the UK could stand to gain money after it leaves the EU. However, this does not account for any potential economic fluctuations as a result of Brexit - if the economy suffers then any gains from not paying into the budget could easily be wiped out by falling tax receipts.

There is also a very real possibility that the UK may have to keep paying into the EU budget if it wants to maintain access to the EU Single Market. The UK will also have to continue paying into the EU budget until it formally leaves the EU and senior European negotiators have signalled they will try and make Britain pay up to €60 billion to leave, to cover previous budget commitments, pension liabilities, and other costs.

In other words, while on paper it might look like leaving the EU will give Britain more money for inward investment, Brexit could end up costing the UK just as much as EU membership - or worse, more.

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