EU summit starts six hours late, as Germany piles on pressure

An EU summit on the bloc's seven-year budget kicked off at about 10pm local time in Brussels on Thursday (7 January) - six hours later than planned, after a series of mini-meetings between leaders, which failed to bring about agreement on an overall spending figure.

Initially, EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy had planned to gather all 27 leaders plus the Croatian Prime Minister, due to join the club later this year, at 3pm to discuss a new proposal below the €972 billion floated at a ...