By Bruno Waterfield - 15th July 2004
MEPs join a special session of the EU’s council of finance ministers – Ecofin – to discuss Europe’s 2005 budget.
The Brussels meeting, chaired by Dutch Europe minister Atzo Nicolaï holds conciliation talks with the European Parliament on a spending package that must be agreed by the EU institutions.
The European Commission’s spending plans for 2005 – the first full budget for an enlarged Europe of 25 members – risks bumping up against an EU spending ceiling.
A cash limit for Brussels expenditure in 2005 is set at a ceiling of €114.2bn with planned spending forecast at €109.5bn – a €4.7bn safety margin.
Two fifths of a €9.7bn rise on 2004 expenditure is accounted for by the costs of incorporating new members into the EU.
The other 40 per cent of the increase is made up of money to match farm subsidy reform, 13 per cent, and funding for Europe’s poor regions, 28 per cent.
National governments are pushing Brussels to set expenditure at one per cent of Europe’s total income in the period 2007-2013: figures for 2005 set spending at €1.03 per cent.
The Dutch EU presidency has warned Brussels that the Hague will be enforcing "budgetary discipline".
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