Barroso demands more EU cash from indebted member states
EU LEADER Jose Manuel Barroso demanded more cash from member states yesterday, arguing the budget increases they offered are not generous enough.
The top-level bureaucrat wants a 6.8 per cent increase on the year for the 2013 budget, but state leaders voted for a 2.79 per cent rise.
“I welcome the courageous efforts that many of you are making to consolidate public finances,” he told the leaders. But giving the EC less than it wants “would be a false economy. It would have serious consequences for economic recovery as these cuts would affect regions, researchers or SMEs with the risk that they would then be starved of finance.”
However, he is likely to make little headway – countries including the UK voted against even the lower rise, and insist there is further room for savings to be made within the existing budget.