ABSTRACT
Of all the problems of negotiations, few gave rise to little actual negotiation in the Conference itself as the most important problem of all, that of Community Finance. There was very little actual negotiation in the Conference on New Zealand or sugar either, and virtually none on sterling. The general pattern of development for the really important questions turned out to be a fairly constant one. It consisted of preliminary investigation by the Commission on the basis of factual papers. The papers describe its purpose as being 'to set out what the effects would be of applying the Community finance regulations without adjustment in a Community enlarged by the accession of the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Irish Republic and Norway. A comparison of the papers with the benefit of hindsight redounds to the credit of the United Kingdom's estimates which turned out to be much closer to actual developments in the European Community's pattern of spending and raising revenue.
