EU finance ministers criticise Blair's budget plan
European Union finance ministers criticised British prime minister Tony Blair today for his EU budget plan that would slash overall spending by €24bn and substantially cut aid to the bloc’s newest and poorest members.
The EU’s executive Commission, meanwhile, said it was still possible to reach a deal at next week’s summit – but more work was needed.
“The president said this proposal was unacceptable and he’ll work to improve it. The final solution has to be acceptable not only to the member states, but also to the European Parliament,” said Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had slammed the British proposal as unfair yesterday and urged Blair to come up with a better plan.
German finance minister Peer Steinbruck said he expected no budget deal based on Britain’s proposal at the EU summit, while Austria’s Karl-Heinz Grasser urged Britain to cut more from its rebate and contribute more to the EU coffers.
Laitenberger said the Commission was not proposing that Britain gives up its cherished annual rebate – a major sticking point in the negotiations – but that it must accept a smaller annual increase of the payback.
The British proposal for the EU’s 2007-2013 budget would trim €14bn in aid for new EU members from the original €847bn package.
It would also take €8bn off Britain’s budget rebate and €2bn from agriculture subsidies.
“It’s a wonderful compromise – for the United Kingdom,” said Spain’s Finance Minister Pedro Solbes, former EU commissioner for monetary affairs.
Steinbruck said he thought there was little chance Britain would get a deal before its rotating EU presidency ends on December 31 as the EU newcomers - mostly former Communist countries whose gross domestic product is far below that of the old members – were unlikely to accept the proposals “in the current form.”
“These proposals will be very hard to push through,” Steinbruck said on the margins of a regular meeting of EU finance ministers, where the budget was not officially on the agenda.
The budget will be discussed again at an ambassador’s conference in Brussels tomorrow.
