Penny pinching

22 November 2012 By Pierre Briançon

European leaders may not agree on the EU’s multi-year budget at their summit this weekend, but they are drifting towards a compromise. That’s too bad: the EU needs a serious debate on how it spends its money – and what solidarity means.

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European Union leaders will need to agree a first-ever cut in the bloc’s long-term spending plans if they are to secure a deal at a summit starting on Nov. 22.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down the chances of an agreement this week, even though senior EU officials warned that failure could lead to a renewed crisis and derail efforts to shore up the euro zone.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has proposed cutting the European Commission’s planned 1.09 trillion euro ($1.4 trillion) budget by about 80 billion euros.
EU officials say that represents a real-terms cut of about 20 billion euros compared with the current expenditure ceiling of 1,034 billion for 2007-2013, which British Prime Minister David Cameron could use to claim victory in the summit.
Britain - along with Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands - is pushing for even deeper cuts of at least 100 billion euros to the Commission’s blueprint.

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