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BRITAIN will be forced to surrender its oil stocks to the EU under the new
treaty – costing taxpayers £6BILLION.

European Commission chiefs will be able to order the UK to increase its oil
reserves in case of emergencies in OTHER nations.

It would mean Britain would have to hand over stocks to EU states suffering an
energy crisis.

Taxpayers would have to pick up the £6billion one-off cost – plus an annual bill
of £750million – to meet EU demands.

The Government fought hard to block the measure in 2002 when the EU constitution
was being drawn up.

Britain currently holds its own oil stocks for up to 90 days. But the EC wants
that to rise to 120.

The Government’s own Regulatory Impact Assessment shows that would mean an extra
cost of £4.2billion.

There would be a further start-up cost of £1.5billion for storage of seven
billion tonnes. And running costs of £500million would also raise the total cost
to £6billion.