Brussels, 22/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 22 October, the European Commission said that the political conditions had been met for the summit of 22 and 23 November to take place. It will be given over to the multi-annual financial framework. “Everybody states their political positions of principal" ahead of a summit likely to see tough “nocturnal” negotiations, but the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has invited the member states to the European Commission for the end of November, according to one of his spokespersons, referring to possible friction between Germany and the UK.
It is believed that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is threatening David Cameron to call for the European Council of November to be cancelled if he sticks to his guns over the European Union budget for the years 2014 to 2020, according to the Financial Times of Monday 22 October. She is to meet the British Prime Minister in London at the beginning of November. “Germany is planning to warn Britain that it will seek to cancel next month's European budget summit if David Cameron, the Prime Minister, insists that he will veto any deal other than a total freeze on spending”, the British newspaper reports, quoting sources close to the negotiations. The article continues: “Ms Merkel is trying hard to persuade Mr Cameron to back a German compromise that would limit EU spending at 1% of European gross domestic product”.
At the European Council on Friday, Cameron said that he was prepared to veto any deal on the multi-annual framework 2014-2020 of the EU that involved any “unacceptable” increases in expenditure (see EUROPE 10714). He is the leader of a the “Friends of better spending” group of countries, together with France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, which would like to see a drastic cut to the initial proposal for 2014-2020. In the opposite corner is the “Friends of cohesion policy” group, a strong alliance of 17 countries led by Poland. These states reject the premise that the cohesion package pay the price of economic austerity on the grounds that the beneficiaries of the funds do not always manage to make full use of them. (LC with MB/transl.fl)