The European Union heads into a critical summit Thursday to hammer out a €1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) budget through 2020 — and it promises to be one of its most bitter fights in years.
Complicating the task is that any one of the member states can veto a deal, giving each tremendous negotiating clout, with even small Denmark able to thwart heavy-hitters Germany or France.
Wealthy nations like Germany, Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands are becoming increasingly stingy about contributing to the common cause, especially if that means bailing out countries like Greece and Spain, which feasted on EU development funds before collapsing under piles of debt.
The European Commission, the EU's executive, backs more spending, arguing that cross-border initiatives on everything from science to pipelines will help to create the economic growth and jobs that the bloc of a half-billion people needs.
[...] just about every EU nation has had to cut into parts of its national budget or raise taxes to fund that vision, which has raised the ire of voters.
Countries like Sweden specifically seek farm cuts that would slice its share well below the current 40 percent of the budget and instead move more funds into new industries.
Complicating the task is that any one of the member states can veto a deal, giving each tremendous negotiating clout, with even small Denmark able to thwart heavy-hitters Germany or France.
Wealthy nations like Germany, Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands are becoming increasingly stingy about contributing to the common cause, especially if that means bailing out countries like Greece and Spain, which feasted on EU development funds before collapsing under piles of debt.
The European Commission, the EU's executive, backs more spending, arguing that cross-border initiatives on everything from science to pipelines will help to create the economic growth and jobs that the bloc of a half-billion people needs.
[...] just about every EU nation has had to cut into parts of its national budget or raise taxes to fund that vision, which has raised the ire of voters.
Countries like Sweden specifically seek farm cuts that would slice its share well below the current 40 percent of the budget and instead move more funds into new industries.
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