By Bruno Waterfield - 28th November 2005
British EU presidency proposals to slash Brussels budget compromise figures by a further €20 billion are set to meet with opposition from Europe’s poorest countries.
According to press reports, the UK is set to table cuts that are over €170 billion down on original European Commission proposals for EU spending between 2007 to 2013, proposed in early 2004.
London is set to trim a compromise EU expenditure package of €871 billion for 2007 to 2013 to €851 billion in budget proposals to be discussed this December.
The UK package is down on a Luxembourg EU presidency proposal tabled in June that pegged European ‘commitments’ for spending at 1.06 per cent of Europe’s Gross National Income over the seven year period.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is embarking on a whistle-stop tour of EU leaders to promote a 1.03 per cent cap – well below the 1.24 per cent of GNI or €1025 billion proposal from the commission.
The latest cuts may meet with approval from Europe’s six net contributors – Austria, Britain, France, Germany Sweden and the Netherlands – who originally sought to peg expenditure at one per cent of GNI.
Alongside the headline cuts, the UK is also set to propose a cut to London’s 21-year-old annual EU rebate – currently worth around €5 billion a year.
Blair is expected to offer a “take it or leave it” reduction to the rebate in a bid to secure a deal - a stake that will have to be at least at €2 billion to €3 billion a year to get agreement from other EU heads of state and government.
In a bid to sell the deal to new EU members states, Blair meets the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in Tallinn on Thursday.
He will then continue his charm offensive in Budapest for talks with the leaders of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
“[Blair] has said we are going to go for a deal. We recognise all the problems that involves but we also realise that the accession countries, particularly, want a deal because they want the certainty of knowing what their budget is going to be,” said the UK government spokesman.
“Therefore, accession countries have particular significance and importance in trying to get a deal. The importance of these meetings is that they understand where in broad terms we are coming from and we understand in broad terms where they are coming from.”
The new EU member states, as Europe’s poorest countries, have the most to lose, and gain, from a final settlement on budgets for 2007 to 2013.
Poland could lose up to €6 billion in regional aid targeted at the EU’s poorest areas under the UK proposals compared to the commission’s original budgets.
Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz will warn Blair that Poland will scupper talks rather than sign up to a bad deal.
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