Merkel scoops budget glory, but MEPs want more
ANDREW RETTMAN
19.12.2005 @ 12:04 CET
German chancellor Angela Merkel has been crowned the queen of the EU budget by the European press, with German tabloid Bild am Sonntag calling her "Miss Europe" and broadsheet FAZ splashing "Angela Merkel impresses Europe" on its front page.
The reaction comes after Germany helped turn the tide of EU budget talks last Friday (16 December) by offering to pay more and mediating between other key players such as the UK, France and Poland.
Merkel's quiet style has also seen her called "the secret president of the EU" (Photo: CDU)
EU leaders agreed on overall financing of 862.4 billion (1.045 percent of EU gross income) in 2007-2013, with the UK giving 10.5 billion off its rebate but with no firm commitments to overhaul either the rebate or the common agricultural policy (CAP) before 2013.
German paper Die Welt writes that Ms Merkel's quiet triumph will give Berlin more elbow room in foreign policy terms by fostering a new atmosphere compared to the country's confrontational stance on the Iraq war.
French press mocks French president Jacques Chiracs insistence the final budget proposal was a "Franco-German" baby, with Liberation saying "everybody knows that he is not the star of the summit, he, who was only interested in keeping the CAP intact."
Polish paper Gazeta Wyborcza runs the headline "Germany saves EU budget compromise", pointing out that Germany took 100 million designated for poor eastern German regions and switched it to Poland.
National gripes aired
The leaders of the former communist German regions are already asking for their 100 million back however, with Dieter Althaus, the prime minister of the state of Thuringen, saying "Of course we will negotiate
about a compensation."
UK leader Tony Blair will on Monday face a grilling in the UK parliament over why he gave away 20 percent of the British rebate without any real concessions on the CAP.
Reuters reports that Mr Blair's own party colleague, powerful finance boss Gordon Brown, is "furious" over the budget result.
FT writes that the way the rebate cut is structured, climbing from £500 million (740 million) less in 2007 to £2 billion a year less from 2009 onward, could cause problems for Britain's own budget.
Mr Blair is not the only politician going home to face tough questions however.
Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schussel defended his country's rise in future payments from 750 million a year to 870 million a year by saying it is right his small but wealthy country should help foot the bill for enlargement.
And Danish eurosceptic party Dansk Folkeparti expects the EU budget deal to swell its support, with Denmark set to pay 120 per person per year by 2013 compared to 40 per person per year today.
Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen responded "This is about much more than what we pay to the EU cashbox, and what we get out from it. It is about, for instance, that we get full and free access to a bigger single market, which represents an economic advantage for us", Politiken reports.
MEPs veto threat hangs in the air
Mr Blair will discuss the budget with European Parliament political group leaders and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday.
Senior MEPs have lashed out at last week's result, after asking member sates for 975 billion in June - 113 billion more than they got.
Parliament and commission must now sign off on the member states' budget deal in a new Inter-institutional agreement (IIA), with trialogues set to start in January.
Some funding programmes could face delay if there is no IIA by the end of March, while no IIA at all would see overall EU spending go up by 4 billion a year under an annual budgeting system.
The incoming Austrian presidency is taking MEPs objections seriously, with Austrian EU ambassador Gregor Woschnagg saying "It will be a difficult task for us to reach an agreement with the European Parliament."
Parliament officials indicated MEPs are likely to use their IIA powers to push for a little more cash, improved flexibility for EU external action programmes and tighter auditing of structural fund spending, rather than go down the veto path however.
"I don't think now is the time to go for an all-out war with the council", one parliament insider said.