EU's grand ambitions threatened by budget dispute

Bangkok Post ^ | Monday, February 4, 2013 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

The European Union's massive spending on farm subsidies and infrastructure projects will be in the spotlight at difficult talks this week to set the bloc's next longterm budget.

Sources at both the European Commission and the European Parliament say EU leaders will be looking to trim a further 20 to 25 billion euros ($30-$35 billion) off the almost trillion-euro ($1.36 trillion) budget for 2014-2020 at a February 7-8 summit...

The summit will be the second attempt by the 27 leaders to reach a deal on the budget after a November summit collapsed in acrimony.

The Commission had originally sought 1.047 trillion euros for the 2014-2020 EU budget.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy tried to broker an agreement at the November summit with a proposal for 74 billion in cuts to bring the budget down to 973 billion, or 1.01 percent of Europe's GDP.

However Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands pushed for still deeper cuts, with British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking to bring the budget down to 886 billion euros.

Many of the likely new cuts will be in the so-called "Connecting Europe" facility, a grand bid to connect up nations in the fields of energy, transport and digital networks.

The ambitious scheme dreamt up by the EU executive, the Commission, to propel the bloc into the future, is seen by several nations as too big a drain on the budget.

Salaries and other institutional costs that previously were left untouched would also see cuts.

[SunkenCiv]

The M31 highway under construction between Godollo and Budapest in 2009. Farm subsidies and infrastructure projects will be under discussion at European Union budget negotiations this week.

[SunkenCiv]

This will either be the most epic goal line stand in Superbowl history, or not. :’)

Ah, incomplete pass on 4th down. That should be the game.