Brussels, 08/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Criticised for his management of the recession, under pressure from eurosceptics in his own party and coming under fire in the opinion polls, the British prime minister, David Cameron, threatened on Sunday 7 October 2012 to veto any increase in the European Union's budget for 2014-2020.
David Cameron told the Sunday Telegraph that he would not put up with what he described as scandalous attempts in the current round of talks on the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020 to increase the EU budget. In an interview a few hours ahead of the opening of the Conservative Party's annual conference in Birmingham, Cameron said that he would veto the budget if it wasn't in the British interest. He said that for the MFF, it would not be acceptable to raise large sums of money from the taxpayers of Europe to feed an expanding central budget and he would be fighting very hard and refuse to give in on the British rebate. He said it would be scandalous to see big increases in the European budget when one has to make cuts in the national budget. David Cameron said his minority coalition partner, the Liberal Democrat party, agreed with the policy he had set out. David Cameron suggests looking into the idea of the EU having two separate budgets, one for the 17 eurozone countries and one for the other 10, including the United Kingdom. (LC/transl.fl)