Post date: Nov 22, 2012 10:1:0 AM
UK Prime Minister David Cameron rejects a European Union budget that will see Britain's rebate cut as European leaders gather for an intensive two-day summit.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NOVEMBER 22, 2012) (EBS) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday (November 22) that he plans to push very hard for a reworking of the European Union budget proposal at an intensive two-day summit in Brussels.
Cameron will oppose a compromise plan for the EU budget because it includes significant cuts to Britain's multimillion pound rebate and because cuts elsewhere do not go far enough, he said."I'm not happy at all, these are very important negotiations. Clearly at a time when we're making very difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong, it is quite wrong for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU," Cameron told journalists as he arrived for the crunch meeting.
"We're going to be negotiating very hard for a good deal for Britain's tax payers and forEurope's tax payers, and to keep the British rebate," he added.
Cameron is expected to raise the sensitive issue of the 2.9 billion pound annual rebate at the start of Thursday's meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
The EU chief had last week tabled a draft EU budget aiming to mollify Britain, which wants deep reductions to EU spending plans.
Van Rompuy's draft would reduce the roughly 1 trillion euro ($1.3 trillion) budget for 2014-2020 proposed by the European Commission by about 80 billion euros and will be discussed by EU leaders aiming to strike a deal at the summit on November 22-23.