Interesting Facts

The UK voted to leave the European Union.  (It wasn't announced until 24th June, but it was on this day that the polls closed and the seal was set on the breakup of the UK. Watch this space.)

The EU has already banned powerful vacuum cleaners, sparking a rush to buy the last remaining models with motors above the new EU limit of 1,600 watts, but now Europe has its sights on other domestic appliances. (Toasters, kettles and juicers will have their power consumption reduced. Other items under the spotlight include heated greenhouses, power tools, gym equipment, food mixers, rice cookers, blenders, deep fat fryers and believe it or not aquarium lights and filters. I guess that's what you call pulling the plug.)

If Scotland votes to break away from the UK, it will have to sign around 14,000 treaties. (According to "experts", Scotland would become a "new state" and would therefore need to rejoin thousands of international agreements and bodies, which means membership of the UN, the EU, NATO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation would all have to be renegotiated. I bet the lawyers are rubbing their hands in glee.)

The 2014 to 2020 budget for the EU will be between 143 billion euros and 151 billion euros ($182.5 billion to $192.8 billion) per year.  (It sounds like a lot, but it's only  about 1 percent of the CEO (common economic output).  Over seven years this adds up to over 1 trillion euros, but according to German MEP Jutta Haug Germany alone will spend about 2.2 trillion euros over the same seven years. Too many noughts!)

There are 12 net contributors and 15 net recipients within the EU. (Net contributors receive less money from EU funds than they pay into the joint coffers.  Net recipients receive more grants and benefits than they pay.  The largest net contributors include Germany (at 9 billion euros), France (6.4 billion), Italy (5.9 billion), Great Britain (5.6 billion) and the Netherlands (2.2 billion).  The leading net recipients are Poland (11 billion), Greece (4.6 billion), Hungary (4.4 billion), Spain (2.9 billion), and Portugal (2.9 billion).  Calculating that for each individual EU citizen, however, the picture looks different: Danes pay the most into EU coffers at 150 euros each, while Hungary receives the biggest payout - 442 euros per capita in aid money from Brussels.)

Production of 100, 75 and 60 watt light bulbs has ceased in the US and Europe. (From 2014, incandescent bulbs of 40 watts or above will be banned in the US. Supporters of this move say that by replacing the old fashioned lamps with more efficient models domestic energy consumption for lighting will be reduced by 60 per cent in the EU alone. That's the equivalent of 30 million tons of CO2 pollution every year. What was really funny is that when they announced that these bulbs (which we haven't used for years) were being phased out, people went out and bought loads to stock up. Demand was highest in Germany, Austria, Poland and central Europe.  Germany surprised me as they usually care about the environment.  The reason given was that people felt that compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which use a fifth of the energy needed for a conventional bulb, give off a sickly light.  Aw diddums.)