Brussels/London clash over EU budget

“£400 [€451] per family demanded by EU,” headlines the Daily Telegraph, after the European Commission made a formal request to members for a £5.5 billion [€6.2 billion] budget rise that would take EU spending in 2012 to £117 billion [€132 billion]. “The additional payment would take Britain’s annual EU contribution to more than £10 billion [€11.3 billion] in 2012, the equivalent of £400 for every household,” the London daily notes, adding that the demand has started “a war of words, with Downing Street calling the request “ludicrous” and George Osborne, the Chancellor, accusing EU officials of having lost touch with reality.” British PM David Cameron will now seek to form an alliance with leaders from countries including France, Germany, Holland and Sweden to fight the planned rise, a tack the euro-reluctant daily approves of – “Europe is struggling to recover from the biggest economic crash since the 1930s and every member state is taking austerity measures. Yet EU officials have been beavering away at the arduous task of finding new ways of spending more of our money.”