Koprol Presenting Positions for EU Budget Talks in London

London, 27 July

Slovenia has urged the British EU presidency to put forward its proposal for the EU budget talks for the 2007-2013 period as soon as possible. The time dimension is very important for the country, State Secretary for European Affairs Marcel Koprol said after talks in London on Wednesday.

Koprol was in London for consultations with a representative of the British presidency. Following the talks, he told that Slovenia expected the negotiating position to be the latest compromise proposal by the Luxembourg presidency.
As this failed to get support at the June summit, the British presidency took over the work, deciding to hold bilateral consultations with delegations of all member states.
Assuming the rotating EU presidency on 1 July, London said negotiations would continue on the basis of the work done so far.
Slovenia was the sixth country to hold consultations in London. These will continue until 20 September, whereupon London is to notify the committee of permanent representatives in Brussels of the conclusions.
A new round of consultations is expected to begin in October, with the British presidency expected to put forward a new proposal for talks in November, Koprol explained.
Since an agreement on the 2007-2013 financial arrangements was not reached in June, Slovenia as a single statistical region will soon no longer be eligible for the largest chunk of EU regional funds.
The country's GDP per capita for the 2001-2003 period has already exceeded the threshold of 75% of the EU's average. Slovenia has therefore decided to seek division into statistical regions.

Koprol Presenting Positions for EU Budget Talks in London

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