Lidstaten maken zich op voor langdurige onderhandelingen nieuw EU-budget (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Irish Presidency is bracing itself for a long and drawn-out process of negotiation over the future EU budget, finance minister Charlie McCreevy indicated today.

The Commission will present, on 10 February, its proposals for how the EU should be financed for the five or seven years beginning in 2007.

Mr McCreevy announced today that finance ministers will have an early opportunity to discuss these proposals on 2 April at an informal meeting in Punchestown (Ireland) and he indicated that negotiations could be at least as hard as the last debate in Berlin when all-night sessions were required to thrash out a deal.

He said, "I remember the months and years of negotiations that led up to the final adoption of the financial perspectives and the all-night meetings that took place at the end despite all the years of negotiations".

"And from tentative and initial comments by ministers today, making an agreement on this issue will not be any easier than on the previous occasion".

He continued, "We intend to set out a road map for how discussion will take place ... with a view to their conclusion during 2005".

Opening shots

The opening shots in this battle have already been fired.

The leaders of six net contributors to the EU budget - the UK, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, France and Germany - have sent a letter to the Commission asking that the budget be capped at one percent of gross national income (the current level is 1.24 percent of GNI).

Commission President Romano Prodi hit back yesterday (19 January), saying that the eve of enlargement was "an odd moment to propose lowering the ceiling on the EU's own resources".

But Hans Eichel, Germany's finance minister repeated Germany's position that the upper limit of the budget must not remain at 1.24 percent of GNI.

"Such a proposal...can only lead to the impression that citizens should pay more, and that is exactly what we do not want", said Mr Eichel on the margins of the meeting today.

He also said that Italy, Ireland and Slovenia would join forces with the six net contributors to form a powerful block calling for a cap on the budget.

But Mr McCreevy denied this saying that Ireland had not yet set out its position on the budget.

Difficult atmosphere

Moreover, negotiations over the budget are expected to take place in an atmosphere more fraught than usual due to the legal challenge being issued against member states by the Commission over their suspension of the euro rules last November.

A source close to the talks said today that he expected France and Germany to side with the "Council" (the defendant in the case) and that the Netherlands would side with the Commission, which will lead to a damaging rift.

Ministers continued to play down the rift today. Francis Mer, the French finance minister, said that things were calming down and that "when things have calmed down, we will create the conditions necessary for us to discover together what is best for Europe".