Budget battle to begin in earnest

EU Finance Ministers will meet near the Hague on Friday to thrash out a whole host of economic issues, including how the EU should be financed from 2007 onwards.

The occasion marks the first time ministers will officially discuss Commission proposals on the EU budget from 2007-2013 and two main battlegrounds are expected to emerge.

How to proceed?

\nThe first concerns the amount of money member states will transfer to the EU.

Brussels insists that the EU's budget mu...