While the UK is the only country to have so far received a rebate the Commission pointed out that the Fontainbleu agreement was based on the principle that ‘….any Member State sustaining a budgetary burden which is excessive in relation to its relative prosperity may benefit from a correction at the appropriate time.’ [1] This could clearly apply to many other countries apart from Britain, Germany and other countries could therefore ask for a rebate if they wish. While there is no other compensation mechanism like the rebate there are lump sum payments to the Netherlands and Sweden [2] while Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Austria all have reduced rates of the European portion of VAT, [3] and the same states also pay less towards the rebate. [4]  [1] Patterson, Ben, ‘The UK rebate issue’, p.2 (link downloads pdf)  [2] Europa, ‘Where does the money come from?’, 2010  [3] Notenboom, Harry, ‘Structure and composition of the European Union own resources System’, 2009, p.17  [4] Ibid, p.15