Slovenia Relatively Pleased with British EU Budget Compromise

Ljubljana, 12 December

Slovenia estimates that the British proposal for the 2007-2013 EU spending plan is an acceptable compromise if changes to some of most important segments, such as CAP and development, are made, PM Janez Jansa told the press in London on Thursday after meeting British PM Tony Blair.

If the EU does not reach an agreement on the 2007-2013 budget at a summit scheduled for 15 and 16 December in Brussels, it would face a severe political crisis and a budget paralysis which would mostly affect the new EU members.
"The EU urgently needs an agreement in order to prove that it works... Current problems are only symptoms of a crisis which already started with the double 'no' on the EU constitution in France and Netherlands," Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker said last week.
It is in the interest of all EU newcomers for the budget agreement to be reached by the end of 2005. For Slovenia, this is of vital importance, for it could easily lose the right to receive the biggest part of cohesion funds.
Preliminary calculations show that the British compromise is even slightly better for Slovenia than the budget proposal which Luxembourg presented at the June summit.
The new proposal limits expenditure and cuts the cohesion funds, however, the structure remains similar to the Luxembourg compromise, Slovenian officials said in their first responses. They believe the new proposal is a good basis for further negotiations.
Nevertheless, Jansa admitted that he was disappointed with the latest proposal. He said it did not follow certain strategies which the EU had already adopted, especially the Lisbon Strategy.
Slovenia welcomes the part of the new proposal which envisages more flexible terms of and an extended deadline for drawing funds.
According to preliminary calculations based on the British proposal, Slovenia would receive a net sum of 0.88% of GNP. This is 0.01% up over the previous proposal presented by Luxembourg at the June EU summit which would give it 0.87% of GNP.
If the British compromise is adopted in December, Slovenia would reach the goal it set in June to receive in the next EU budgetary period double the amount it is getting in the 2004-2006 period, which on average amounts to 0.36% of GNP.
Other EU members were mainly much more critical of the new proposal, especially the rest of the newcomers, which would now receive less than with the Luxembourg compromise. However, EU net payers, except for France, were generally ready for talks.

Slovenia Relatively Pleased with British EU Budget Compromise

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