Parliament loses first battle of the budget

For Süddeutsche Zeitung, the failure of talks between member states and the European parliament over the 2011 EU budget is serious cause for concern. "(I)f they keep on like this, the EU will soon run out of money" in the midst of a financial crisis. The Munich daily believes that "negotiations on the 2011 budget have revealed the brutal truth of what member states think of their representatives in Brussels: nothing. And MEPs have responded to this contempt with sincere hostility." The Bavarian newspaper blames the failed talks on member states unable to make concessions when the time came.

For the Financial Times, the “unexpectedly stubborn stance" of member states has been prompted by "a desire to punish a Parliament that has grown increasingly assertive - some say grasping - since the Lisbon treaty came into force in December." MEPs believe that their demand for greater powers "is simply democracy," notes FT: "they are, after all, the only popularly-elected body in Brussels and they must be reckoned with."

For Gazeta Wyborcza, "the fiasco is proof that the battle for power within the EU has only just begun." If "the outcome of the conflict is a defeat for Parliament and victory for a handful of governments led by London, we will be faced with the prospect of the progressive dismantling of the EU."

The Warsaw daily argues that the debate is not just about money but about national governments’ willingness to discuss the process for drafting the EU budget and the issue of EU financial resources with MEPs. Parliament’s participation in budgetary negotiations will add to the legitimacy of the EU and ensure that future budgets are of equal benefit to all the EU’s member states and not just a handful of countries.

On 15 November, "it appears that a number of governments chose to obstruct the 2011 EU budget to avoid establishing a precedent. They were probably also planning to substantially reduce the budget in the future. However,” Gazeta Wyborcza warns, “if this idea prevails, instead of growing the EU will shrink."