Lidstaten in loopgraven bij de vaststelling van het nieuwe EU-budget (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The UK seems increasingly isolated in its bid to keep the 4.6 billion euro a year that it receives back from the EU budget.

During a discussion over the EU budget from 2007-2013 today (16 November), there was "great consensus, apart from the UK of course, that there is no need for the British rebate", according to French diplomats.

But British Chancellor Gordon Brown continues to insist that the rebate is "fully justified".

And the clash promises to hold up progress on the already thorny issue of EU funding, since the UK retains a veto over the rebate.

Mr Brown presented figures to his fellow ministers showing that, even without the rebate, the UK would have been a leading net contributor to EU coffers.

However, French sources insist, "the situation is different to 1984", when the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously won the rebate, which has been staunchly defended ever since.

Eurotax: "not much enthusiasm"

And ministers were also split over Commission proposals to even out the rebate system.

Currently, only the UK is currently guaranteed it will receive money back from the EU coffers, but Brussels has suggested that all EU member states that pay more into the budget than they receive should also enjoy a rebate.

On this, the UK and France can agree - both are opposed to the principle. Mr Brown described the proposal as "unrealistic and unacceptable". French sources said that Paris was also against this idea "on principle", because it "does not conform with the solidarity principle of the EU".

Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer admitted there was a "really widespread variety of opinion" on the issue of the EU's so-called own resources, a view echoed by Mr Zalm, who also told journalists that there was "not much enthusiasm" for a eurotax.

Bitterness and acrimony

EU leaders hope to reach agreement on the next EU budgetary period by next year.

But history shows that it is never an easy process. Last time, agreement was finally reached at 6am after lengthy and acrimonious debate.

And a German diplomat recently predicted that the talks over the budget would be more difficult than the tangles over the Constitution.

Compromise

Despite strong British rhetoric, some analysts believe that a compromise can still be found.

Jorge Nunez-Ferrar, an expert on the EU budget from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels thinks that Britain will eventually accept a reasonable rebate, "maybe in line with today's figure", within a "much altered system".

But although Mr Nunez-Ferrar hopes for a compromise by the end of next year, he said, "it will take some time before this is resolved".