By Martin Banks - 23rd November 2009
Limited to €123bn, the budget is barely over one per cent of European GDP
Alain Lamassoure
Parliament and member states have thrashed out a compromise deal for next year's EU budget.
The agreement means the budget will be limited to €123bn, less than parliament had sought but more than the figure proposed by EU countries.
French deputy Alain Lamassoure, chairman of the budgets committee, welcomed the deal.
"Limited to €123bn, the budget is barely over one per cent of European GDP," he said.
"It will, however, finance the remaining €2.4bn of the European economic recovery plan, €300m for the dairy fund promised to farmers, a first sum for the Copenhagen climate conference and the decommissioning of Kozloduy, the last Soviet nuclear power plant in Europe."
He said management of the 2009 budget, had been "so rigorous" that the EU will return €4bn savings to member state budgets, "at a time when they particularly need it".
"And the icing on the cake is that the agreement will give Herman Van Rompuy, the new president of the European council, the means to carry out his duties by funding them entirely from savings made in the administration of council services.
"The EU will, therefore, be in good financial working order on 1 January 2010," he said.
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