Britain under fire in EU budget talks
Britain has today come under fire for failing to put forward proposals to reform the EU budget ahead of crunch talks next month.
Finance ministers from the 25 member states are meeting in Brussels today to try to resolve the dispute over the 2007-13 budget, which saw talks collapse earlier this year.
Britain’s rebate, worth more than £3 billion and secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, is a main sticking point, with many member states arguing Britain must give it up.
However, the government has refused to do so without a similar cut in farm subsidies, which make up more than 40 per cent of the EU budget and benefit France the most.
Britain, as the holder of the EU presidency until the end of the year, has said it is determined to reach agreement on the budget by the formal meeting of ministers in December.
But many EU ministers argue that the proposals put forward by Luxembourg during its presidency earlier this year – which would have frozen the rebate – were an adequate compromise.
And the failure of the UK to come up with detailed proposals for the budget is causing concern. It insists they will be presented on the eve of a special ministerial meeting on December 7th – just ten days ahead of the crunch ministerial budget talks.
“The British presidency is going to have to make a choice: either it proposes in the coming days a balanced package including a fair sharing of the costs of enlargement, or it will condemn us to failure, which would be a heavy responsibility,” said French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
The current deadlock is making such a deal increasingly unlikely, however. Failure would see the existing budget roll over, with agricultural subsidies and the rebate remaining the same, and, more importantly, leaving the ten new EU countries without their promised funding.
EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso stressed the importance of coming up with a deal that would be agreed at the December meeting, saying: “This is a very serious matter, we are running out of time.”
He added: “I have come here to tell the presidency and all member states that a deal is really urgent, and very frankly it’s not credible to speak about new enlargements if you are not able to finance the European Union as it is now.”
Speaking to reporters on his way to the meeting, foreign secretary Jack Straw sought to fend off suggestions that it is Britain’s refusal to give up its rebate that is causing the deadlock.
“We in the British presidency are completely committed to doing everything we can to try to get a deal on the EU budget,” Mr Straw told reporters on his arrival.
“But a negotiation is a negotiation which requires movement by all sides, not just by one party which in this case happens to be the UK presidency.”
