Brussels has demanded that British taxpayers stump up more than 682million in extra contributions to the European Union next year to meet a proposed 5.5billion increase in spending that has defied David Camerons repeated calls for austerity. The European Commission will today ignore pleas from the Prime Minister, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy for the EU to reduce expenditure in line with painful national cuts to public spending. Instead of a freeze, or a cut, the EU will later today issue a request for an extra 4.9 per cent (5.5 billion) in spending for 2012 to swell the Brussels budget to 117billion despite the austerity measures being imposed by member states domestically. We have opted for investing in areas that contribute to economic growth and development: the EU budget is an anti-crisis package, said a senior official. The new demand for additional cash will be seen as a declaration of war against Downing Street which last year signed the German Chancellor and French President up to a pledge for an EU spending freeze.