Wednesday

29th Mar 2023

EU budget talks delayed as leaders set out red lines

  • Budget broker? Van Rompuy (r) has met individually with all EU leaders (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

The long-awaited EU budget summit has begun on an uncertain note with a two hour delay to the start of talks.

EU officials had expected the first working session of talks to start at 20h30 Thursday evening, but with the 'confessional' meetings between EU leaders and European Council President Herman van Rompuy overrunning, negotiations are not expected to start before 11pm and not expected to finish until the early hours of Friday.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Van Rompuy is expected to provide a revised budget plan as the basis for detailed negotiation. The first compromise proposal circulated to national capitals by the Council President pared the 1,053 billion tabled by the European Commission to 973 billion, a 20 billion cut on the 2007-2013 framework.

However, while the summit on the EU's next seven year budgetary cycle starting in 2014 has been planned to continue until the weekend, many leaders are sanguine about the prospect of talks breaking up without an overall deal.

Angela Merkel indicated that she felt under little pressure to reach an agreement. "Germany wants to reach the goal but it may be that we need a further stage", she told reporters outside the Council building.

Germany is comfortably the largest net contributor to the EU budget, and is unwilling to see its contribution go up. French President Francois Hollande, struck a different tone, emphasising that France and Germany would be the likely brokers of a deal. "I am sure that with Germany, we are going to be - as always - a motor to allow this compromise", he said.

The talks are expected to be finely balanced between the eight member states who are net contributors to the budget seeking overall cuts in EU spending and others demanding either an increase or, at least, the maintenance of programmes such as farms subsidies in the common agricultural policy and cohesion funding for infrastructure projects in the bloc's poorest regions.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti said that "it is absolutely essential that Italy obtains better results than those presented in initial drafts", he said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been loudest about the potential use of the veto, promised to negotiate hard for British taxpayers.

Meanwhile, European Parliament President Martin Schultz warned earlier that MEPs could reject an eventual agreement if the budget cuts are too deep.

Opinion

EU budget: Don't cut the left arm to save the right

EU citizens will be the biggest losers of the power struggle on the Union's budget for 2014-2020, as any cuts will stifle growth and jobs, write MEPs Joseph Daul and Reimer Boege.

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Opinion

Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown

Turkey goes to the polls in May for both a new parliament and new president, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided against a post-earthquake postponement. The parliamentary outcome is easy to predict — the presidential one less so.

Latest News

  1. The overlooked 'crimes against children' ICC arrest warrant
  2. EU approves 2035 phaseout of polluting cars and vans
  3. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering
  4. What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking
  5. Dear EU, the science is clear: burning wood for energy is bad
  6. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  7. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  8. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us