Blair heads for rebate row at EU summit

[lovuian]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article321121.ece

By Stephen Castle and Colin Brown
Published: 21 October 2005
European leaders have raised the stakes over the explosive issue of EU financing, increasing the likelihood of a row over Britain's budget rebate. A week before Tony Blair hosts a one-day gathering of heads of government in Hampton Court, the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said discussion of EU funding was "unavoidable" in any debate on modernising Europe's economy. And Germany's outgoing Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, has made a thinly veiled attack on the UK for blocking a deal on EU funding four months ago.

Mr Blair has warned EU leaders including Jacques Chirac, the French President, that he will not allow next week's meeting at Hampton Court Palace to be turned into a renewed attack on Britain's rebate.

The Prime Minister wanted to focus next week on the economic threat to the EU by globalisation, code for the growth of China and India, which led this summer to the row over protectionism against Chinese cotton exports. "Next week is not about the budget," said the official spokesman for Mr Blair, who will host the talks because the UK holds the EU's rotating presidency.

In June, Britain was blamed by many countries for the collapse of talks over the EU's budget for 2007-13, when Mr Blair refused to compromise on the UK's annual €5bn (£3.4bn) rebate unless the EU's multibillion-euro farm subsidies were curbed.

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The Eu having its problems!!!

[Orrin_73]

1. European economy is in a coma

it is unable to compete with the US and the far east. Germany and France are in a deep recession with millios of unemployed. The EU is the new sick man of the world.

[ikri]

2. Many of the EU's finance problems would be solved

If they reformed the common agricultural policy that has been sucking money from all over Europe for decades.

It was in dire need of reform 20 years ago, since then it's only got worse.

And Britain's €5 Billion rebate is nothing compared to the overheads associated with the CAP.