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Poland blocks blair eu budget Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10494406/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10494406/
Eleventh-hour EU budget deal within reach
By George Parker in Brussels
Updated: 4:41 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2005
Financial Times
European Union leaders were on Friday night edging towards an agreement on a new seven-year budget for the 25-member bloc, after western European countries agreed to transfer more cash to the east.
Angela Merkel, Germany's new chancellor, called for "solidarity" towards the eight countries of the former Soviet bloc, an admission that earlier proposals by the British presidency of the EU to cut funding for eastern Europe by €16bn ($19.2bn, £10.8bn) was unacceptable.
Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister and host of the summit, was preparing to increase by about €3bn from €8bn to €11bn the additional sum the UK would pay towards the cost of enlarging the EU to the east.
Other leaders of rich countries, including Wolfgang Schussel of Austria, said they could pay more if it helped to end more than a year of wrangling over the EU's 2007-13 package.
No agreement had been sealed by the time EU leaders convened for dinner on Friday night to discuss the latest British compromise text, but diplomats were confident the meeting was heading for a successful outcome.
An agreement on a budget for the EU was seen as vital to avoid deepening the club's crisis, which has been marked by a rejection of the EU's constitution by French and Dutch voters, feeble economic growth and increasing national self-interest.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Polish prime minister, said: "Everything we have done today brings us significantly closer to a compromise. It seems now the budget will be higher and will display greater solidarity."
Poland has led opposition to the cut-priced budget proposed by Mr Blair, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, but there have been other big stumbling blocks.
President Jacques Chirac of France insisted that Britain give up at least €3bn of its rebate from the EU budget, known in France as "the British cheque", and that the arrangement be made permanent.
Mr Blair was also negotiating with Mr Chirac over the wording of a review clause in the EU budget. The British prime minister wants a planned review of European spending in 2009 to allow cuts in the EU's farm subsidy regime before 2013; Mr Chirac wants any cuts delayed until the end of the next budget period.
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The key figure in Friday's talks was Ms Merkel, who used Germany's influence as a key partner of France and Poland to cajole those countries into an agreement with the British presidency.
Ms Merkel's unexpected proposal to increase the total size of the EU budget from €849bn to €862bn suggested that many countries, including Britain, would have to increase their payments to help fund new motorways and other infrastructure works in the east.
The British rebate was negotiated in 1984 to make up for the fact that the UK received relatively little money from the EU budget, which focuses heavily on agriculture.
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.
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