Can Cameron curb EU budget?

“New budget storm erupts over Brussels profligacy,” headlines The Times. Although the EU budget is not formally on the agenda of the European Council summit 28-29 October, British PM David Cameron will “implore European leaders to live within their means and rein back plans for a 6 per cent rise in overall EU spending to £114 billion (€130 billion) a year.” Mr Cameron is under increasing pressure from his party’s Eurosceptic fringe which is demanding cuts to the EU budget and the repatriation of powers to Britain. The London daily notes that Cameron “is unlikely to prevent an increase of less than 2.9 per cent, the rise already endorsed by the European Council, under which Britain’s contribution would rise by almost £500 million (€572 million) next year — even as UK government departments face cuts of 25 per cent.”