17/12/2005 2:12:49 pm
A Disappointment. The EU leaders have now agreed on the next long-term budget for 2007-2013. Read more in the FT. It will reach 1,045 per cent of the total EU GDP. Naturally, now all the leaders come from the meeting calling the compromise a success. Well, if this is a success, I don′t think I would like to know their definition of a failure.

Of course the EU now has a budget. That is, honestly, a fairly limited aim to reach. But what is the budget all about? Nothing new at all. The subsidies to agriculture will remain as they were. 862 billion (!) euro will go to agriculture and regional policy.

Mr Blair started off the British Presidency with a good speech in the European Parliament. He asked what kind of a social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe. Of course the social model is a national issue, but the EU can make reform more easy or more difficult.

In the beginning of the 1990s, the EU was a force for a free market and trade in Europe. In recent years, its weight has largely been put in the wrong direction. Despite a nice try, nothing new has happened during the British Presidency. Calling this budget deal a success is just a sign of how little that has happened.