Budget wars continue

“Rich countries are going to freeze the EU budget in 2 years’ time,” headlines Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. On December 18 France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, following the United Kingdom’s lead, sent a letter to EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso demanding that, as of 2014, EU budgets be increased by no more than the level of inflation. As French daily La Croix explains, London, Paris and Berlin have agreed that “structural funds, rather than the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), should be adjusted” in future budgets. “The structural funds,” the paper continues, “represent nearly 56% of EU expenses (53.3 bn euros) and are the most significant expense in European budgets”.

The use of the funds is contested, the French paper notes because “they are used more and more often to shore up the economies of Eastern European countries”. Dziennik Gazeta Prawna writes for its part that France has an interest in protecting the CAP, of which it is the primary beneficiary. While Poland, which benefits greatly from the structural funds, is threatened. Quoting MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, the Polish daily explains that Poland “can count on the support of all the Central European countries. But it should also seek the support of “veteran” countries in particular Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece”.

The EU Commission could also be an ally, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna suggests. But for Spanish daily El Pais, “the real budgetary battle won’t begin before June 2011 when the Commission will present its first draft budget for the 2014-2020 period”. This will be a difficult battle, warns Dziennik Gazeta Prawna because the main contributors to the EU budget are not “thinking of ways to narrow the gap between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ Europe, but are just trying to find ways to survive”.