Budget Clash Leaves EU Summit Close to Failure

(BRUSSELS) — The leaders of Britain and France staked out starkly different visions of the European Union’s future Thursday, leaving a summit on the EU budget teetering on the brink of failure after the first day. “I have my doubts that we will come to an agreement,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a chaotic day of bilateral negotiations and a belated, short joint session of the 27 leaders. While British Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking to keep payments into EU coffers as low as possible, French President Francois Hollande called for sustained subsidies for farming and development programs for poorer nations. With each of the 27 nations having the power of veto over the 2014-2020 budget, the summit negotiations could stretch over the weekend, perhaps without result. Cameron voiced the concerns of several countries that do not want to see an increase in the bloc’s spending plan at a time when many member states are cutting budgets at home. (MORE: On Europe’s Thanksgiving Menu: Stiffing Greece) “No, I’m not happy at all,” Cameron said about EU President Herman Van Rompuy’s offer to cap spending for 2014-2020 at €972 billion ($1.25 trillion) in spending commitments. “Clearly, at a time when we’re making difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong — it is quite wrong — for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU,” Cameron said. Van Rompuy’s revised proposal late Thursday did not yield further to Cameron’s demands for cuts, keeping to the same total. The EU budget primarily funds programs to help farming and spur growth in the bloc’s less developed countries, and it amounts to about 1 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product. Hollande and Merkel said another summit meeting might be necessary. “We should not consider that if we don’t get there tomorrow or the day after, all would be lost,” Hollande said. “Germany wants to reach a goal, but there might also be the need for yet another stage,” Merkel said. The European Commission,

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