[autom.vertaling] Schröder dreigt om de toekomstige financiering van de EU te blokkeren (en)

The German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has for the first time drawn a direct line between the future financing of the EU and the negotiations of a new European Constitution.

Speaking in the Europe Committee of the German Parliament in Berlin on Tuesday (21 October) Mr Schröder said the decision-making procedures of the EU would be put into new order by the Constitution.

If this is not in place in an acceptable form by the end of the year, what happens then to the future financing of the European Union, he asked in the Committee, according to Die Welt.

The current financing of the European Union was agreed in Berlin in 1999 and this compromise runs to the end of 2006.

Once the current intergovernmental debate to finalise the Constitution is over, the 10 new EU members have formally joined the EU in May 2004, a new European Parliament is elected in June and a new European Commission installed by November 2004 - all focus will be on the future financing of the EU.

For the two countries providing the most difficulties in the negotiations on the new Constitution - Poland and Spain - the battle over future financing of the Union is of particular interest.

Germany has an annual contribution of close to five billion euro and is the cash cow of the EU, while Spain last year pulled some 8.8 billion euro from the EU coffers for Madrid.

After enlargement, the 10 new relatively poorer EU member states are expected to gain their fair share of EU funds, while Germany, currently dealing with an economic crisis, will have severe difficulties in paying for the party.

This scenario puts heavy strain on the Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar.

Germany is insisting on having the draft EU Constitution as presented by the Convention in July adopted, without changes in the ongoing Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).

For their part, Spain and Poland are insisting that their relatively beneficial voting rights under the Nice Treaty are not altered.