asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the agreement on the United Kingdom European Union budget rebate for the period 2007-14 can be changed without re-opening negotiations on the European Union budget as a whole.[HL6626]

The UK abatement arrangements are covered by the Own Resources Decision. The ORD has to be agreed unanimously in Council and then be ratified by each member state. For the UK, this will require primary legislation in the form of an EC (Finance) Bill. In practice, the Own Resources mechanisms have always been agreed as part of a package in conjunction with setting the EC expenditure commitments for the next multi-annual spending period, as was the case with the December 2005 agreement.