Today's Date:

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EU BUDGET

THE MINISTER – The problem is a bit different, because the United Kingdom, who today holds the European Union presidency, still hasn’t made any proposals. We’re five months into this presidency, there are still a few weeks left to succeed. But it is indeed the British presidency’s particular responsibility to make a proposal to its partners, not just any proposal, but one which is acceptable, i.e. which every member State can agree to. The 25 of us must give our agreement. There’s a proposal on the table, the previous one, 20 out of 25 countries had the same position and are asking the British presidency to take this on board and start again from that basis.

For the moment, we haven’t got a proposal from the British presidency. Yet, the EU clearly will have to have a budget. So I very much hope that the United Kingdom thinks about, notes what I’ve been telling you, that the vast majority of countries just want us to start off from the current basis, and, with a few adjustments, to succeed in finding an agreement. It’s possible, but for this the proposal made to us has to be a good proposal.

THE MINISTER – It means a proposal allowing us to finance the enlarged EU. I.e. finance the enlargement, it’s a necessity, a duty, and it’s also in our interest so that the ten new countries which have joined us catch up economically, socially and environmentally. We’ll benefit from it too. And secondly, a good proposal is one which allows us to finance the common policies, i.e. the EU’s current policies, and also to give a bit of a boost to some policies which have to be developed, for example, everything to do with research and innovation, and indeed security issues. It’s possible, it’s necessary. I repeat that the last proposal, the one on the table, allowed this. So we have to start from that basis, have to be reasonable. If we had to move away from that basis, we’d in fact be moving away from an agreement.

THE MINISTER – It means the presidency has a major responsibility, and that before making a proposal, it must look at what’s likely to get a consensus, and what, conversely, couldn’t get an agreement.

THE MINISTER – It involves everyone making an effort, including the United Kingdom. Many countries had made efforts to get us closer to an agreement in June, we were very close to an agreement. Unfortunately, the United Kingdom didn’t make a comparable effort, since today the key to the negotiation isn’t the CAP, the decisions were taken two years ago and cover the period up to 2013. (…)./.