Moeizame onderhandelingen verwacht over budget EU (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Talks over financing the EU's budget from 2007 to 2013 are set to be "more difficult" than agreeing the Constitution, senior diplomatic sources revealed today.

A well placed diplomat from the German mission to the EU said, "the negotiations on the financial perspectives will be harder than the negotiations on the Constitution. In the Constitution, there were no real controversial issues. But when it comes to money, things are different. When it comes to money, you have no friends".

Negotiations on the Constitution were long, arduous and at times acrimonious, with one failed summit, several late-night sessions and even some personal rancour.

But talks over financing the EU for a seven-year period - known as the financial perspective - have, in the past, been just as tricky.

The last time the EU was trying to agree who would pay how much, agreement was finally reached at six in the morning after all night talks.

Rows brewing

And the seeds of a serious row over the EU's budget have already been sown.

The European Commission has proposed large increases in the amount Member States must make available to Brussels over the seven year period.

But six Member States (the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria) launched a pre-emptive attack before the Commission proposals were tabled, saying that the limit for payments should be capped at a lower rate than current levels.

No basis for negotiation

And the German ambassador to the EU, Wilhelm Schönfelder today raised the stakes by dismissing the Commission's proposals as "very lop-sided".

Speaking at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Mr Schönfelder said, "the proposals of the Commission are no basis for negotiation. We have asked for alternative proposals so we can negotiate".

Moreover, he warned, "we will have no financial framework unless the Commission moves".

Domestic issues

Mr Schönfelder explained that Germany would have grave difficulties explaining to their voters why the EU budget is increasing so much at a time when their own national budget had to be trimmed.

"It cannot be explained to your own voters if your own budget has to go down but the EU budget has to go up at 4.5 percent per year", he said, observing that Germany was the biggest net contributor to EU coffers.

The aim is to have the framework for the EU's financing in place by the end of 2005, so that it can come into force by 1 January 2007.

But the German ambassador said, "I would not dare to give you a guess as to when the negotiations could finish ... as I said, we have not even started to negotiate yet".