BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – For a few minutes yesterday afternoon, it looked as if the European Union might just get a deal on nearly 1 trillion euros of spending for its next long-term budget.
During a “tour-de-table” among the EU’s 27 leaders, the first time they had discussed the 2014-2020 budget as a group, it seemed for a moment that France, Poland, Italy and others might accept deeper cuts than originally proposed, diplomats said on Friday after the summit broke up without agreement.
Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and crucially Germany, the bloc’s main paymaster, were all pushing for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, to offer further spending cuts beyond the 80 billion euros he had already knocked off the original budget plan.
“For about 30 minutes there was a sense around the table that a deal could be struck, that there could be an agreement on going further,” an EU official tracking the talks told Reuters.
“But the mood quickly changed and the door slammed. It became evident that it wasn’t going to be possible.”
Another official said Italy, France and other southern states, changed their tune after hinting they might be willing to discuss deeper adjustments to farm subsidies and drew a line, saying no more reductions.
When the summit ended, after more than four hours of talks yesterday which followed nearly 12 hours of negotiation on Thursday, EU leaders were careful not to point fingers of blame.
Britain’s David Cameron, seen as a ‘danger man’ after he threatened to veto any deal he didn’t like, was more emollient both at the table and in public, saying it had been a group decision to call off the talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was no drama and the chances of a deal in early 2013 were good, while French President Francois Hollande said progress had been made.
Cameron was still full of firm words on EU excess, but said no one nation was to blame for the impasse, a line others echoed.
“Frankly, the deal on the table from the president of the European Council was just not good enough,” he told reporters.
“It wasn’t good enough for Britain and it wasn’t good enough for a number of other countries,” he said, mentioning several northern European states which contribute more to the EU’s budget than they get back in return.
“Together we had a very clear message: We are not going to be tough on budgets at home and then come here and sign up to big increases in European spending.”
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
On the first day of the summit, Van Rompuy held one-on-one meetings with each of the EU’s 27 leaders and Croatia, which is due to join the bloc in the middle of next year.
In his session with Cameron, the first that was held, the British leader made a tough opening bid, saying he wanted 200 billion euros cut from the first budget proposal, bringing the ceiling down to 890 billion euros.
But that, as with all negotiations, was an opening pitch. During Friday’s talks it appeared that Cameron might be willing to settle for cuts closer to 105 billion euros, a similar range to that sought by Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and others.