Luxembourg, 11/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - During the brief debate by EU foreign ministers at the General Affairs Council on Monday on the upcoming Financial Perspectives 2007-2013 (based on a new progress report by the Dutch Presidency on the Council discussions), the various delegations reiterated their already well known views but did not make any real progress. The interventions were essentially tactical, said one spokesperson, with each delegations repeating its general budget priorities and the net contributors expressed their views with regard to the idea of a 1% GDP ceiling on the overall budget. Ministers from the new Member States basically called for cohesion funding gin the next pluri-annual budget to focus on the poorest regions of the new Member States, while several of the 'old' Member States argued that regions lagging behind in the original fifteen Member States should not be forgotten. France wants to see an upper limit of 1% of GDP, but pointed out the importance of respecting the decisions taken in October 2002 on farm spending in the run-up to 2006.