Brussels, 15/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, declared on Wednesday when speaking to the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, that he was “almost certain” that the European Council on Thursday and Friday would not manage to reach an agreement on the whole of the financial perspectives 2007-2013 dossier (see other article). “I am almost certain that we shall not manage to get the financial perspectives through at this summit”, he said. The last Presidency compromise (of 2 June) keeps funding at a level which “begins to seem acceptable to everyone”, but there are “pockets of resistance”, Mr Juncker noted. “It would already be a big step forward if we managed to agree on the general spending level for 2007-2013”, he explained. The compromise provides for EUR 870 billion, or 1.056% of the EU's GNI, in commitment appropriations. On Wednesday evening, the Presidency diffused a new compromise text with a view to negotiations at the European Council. Proposals that “are not so far removed from those the Presidency has already put forward”, Mr Juncker specified.
“But there will be no agreement on the financial perspectives if we do not manage to amend the British rebate”, Mr Juncker said, noting that the United Kingdom was isolated on this issue as “there are 24 States that believe a correction to the British cheque should be contemplated”. On the subject of the countries that fear they pay too much into the EU budget and get little back (Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands), Mr Juncker explained that “by freezing the rebate at the 2003 level (…) we would release a budgetary volume in receipts that we could use to accommodate these three countries”. The level of transfer of their VAT receipts towards the Community budget would therefore “not be more than 0.15%”, Mr Juncker said. While acknowledging that such a percentage would most likely not be sufficient to content everyone, he asserted that, for the Netherlands, it could never be as high as that which the Dutch government had set itself to please government and citizens. With a mixture of lassitude and irony, Mr Juncker confided in MEPs that, in the event of non-agreement, he would (“with a pleasure that is immeasurable”) leave it up to his British counterpart to “come here and participate in deciding on the financial perspectives”. Mr Juncker seemed to be making a step in the direction of Tony Blair on agriculture, saying that, for the first time, there were cuts to be made in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) also. He immediately added, however, that he could not “just like that, question” the agreement of the European Council in October 2002 that protected agricultural spending (markets and payments to farmers) until 2013. “This is a difficult subject as some Member States are fiercely attached to the agreement”, he recalled (with a reference to France in particular).
Although he criticised the intransigence of certain Member States that ”seek to glean a little wherever they can”, Mr Juncker praises the attitude of Italy to a round of applause from some MEPs. Although Ireland loses the benefit of a number of funds by becoming a net contributor by the end of the 2007-2013 period, it is “proud” to do so, Mr Juncker said, as it attains a position that reflects its economic development.
In response to the German Liberal, Wolf Klinz, who called for an “substantive debate” on the next budgetary framework rather than a compromise “in the heat of the moment”, Mr Juncker said that an agreement during the European Council would not be precipitated. Differences concern “supplying the budget from national contributions, and spending structure: this is not a reason for not concluding”, he stressed. Answering Paolo Cirino Pomicino (EPP-ED, Italy), who called on him to defend a more ambitious proposal, Mr Juncker replied: “I cannot take the package of EP proposals under the arm and defend it in the middle of the Council (…), but we shall fight together”.
On Wednesday, the day after his meeting with Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac stated that the “United Kingdom must assume its whole share of funding of the enlarged Europe”. He also repeated that it was not a matter of reviewing the financing of Common Agricultural Policy as the United Kingdom requests, stressing that, thanks to CAP, “Europe has an agricultural sector that is among the most successful in the world with export capacity that contributes to its prosperity”. Mr Blair had, after meeting Mr Chirac, admitted that there was bitter disagreement on this issue between Paris and London.