British taxpayers slugged for EU (and other EU news)

The European Commission has demanded an extra £900 million ($1.398 billion) from British taxpayers, taking the total cost of EU membership to £666 ($1,034.62) for each household. This means the total cost of membership is £14 billion ($21.748 billion).

This excludes other initatives and bailouts.

In other EU news:

• Britain's Telegraph speculates UKIP may do well in the upcoming council elections
• British Conservative Party MEP Daniel Hannan has suggested UKIP should merge with the Conservatives to stop his party losing the next election
• Senior Tory MP's signed a petition to remove the UK from the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights