Deal shaping up at EU budget summit

EU leaders appeared to be heading for a compromise on a headline figure of around €960 billion for the bloc's 2014-2020 budget, amid continued fighting over how much to cut the EU's finances.

According to the latest figures circulated at the summit, the overall total level of the budget has been capped at €960 billion, down from the €972 billion, or 1.01% of EU’s gross national income (GNI).

Meanwhile, the actual payments level has dropped from €935 billion to €908.4 billion, based on actual estimated expenditure within the current budget adjusted for inflation.

That figure would enable the budget hawks, such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, to claim a decrease in the budget on the basis of the payments projections.

Diplomats hailed the agreement, struck after a meeting between the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, as a breakthrough.

Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo told journalists around 4 a.m. that the negotiations would continue into Friday morning.

French sources suggested a possible deal was being sketched out, based the €960 billion headline figure. Negotiations could drag on throughout the day on how to distribute the sums between the three main headings – agriculture, cohesion and competitiveness.

A few figures have emerged from diplomats present at the summit. They indicate:

• The majority of the cuts come from the Connecting Europe Facility (sub-heading 1a “Competitiveness for growth and jobs”)
• An extra €1 billion was slashed from the administrative budget (less expected)
• The British and German rebates were untouched; the Danes won a rebate of €134 million, but these were still subject to negotiation, with the Netherlands and Sweden unlikely to be content with the €650 and €160 million rebates on offer to them; Austria's rebate was to be halved.
• The Common Agricultural Policy funding would rise slightly under the deal.

Parliamentary hurdle

But even if there is a deal, it would still need clearance from the European Parliament.

Martin Schulz, the assembly's president, warned leaders that the budget proposal was the most backward-looking in the EU's history and would not be accepted by the Parliament at the proposed levels.

"President Van Rompuy set out a compromise which would involve spending of €960 billion – we are talking about commitment appropriations here – whereas payment appropriations would just run to about €910-913 billion," he told a news conference, saying he didn't like the proposal.

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