BLIAR surrenders to federal Europe

[ShadesWolf]

HEADLINES IN THE PAPERS

The Times :

Blair surrenders chunk of rebate as EU wheeling and dealing ends

The Mail :

Leaders agree deal over EU budget -
Tony Blair sacrificed an extra £2.7 billion to salvage an EU budget deal he insists is in Britain's interests

The Telegraph :

Blair set to give up £7bn in rebate fiasco - Tony Blair was preparing his biggest climbdown over Europe last night, offering to slash Britain's EU budget rebate by £1 billion a year without winning any commitment from France on early reform of farm subsidies.

The Independent : - No story or article (still Fridays news)

The Guardian :

Blair clinches deal with offer of big rebate cut - Tony Blair last night brokered an agreement on the EU budget which will see Britain give up £7bn of the rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher more than 20 years ago as part of a broad deal to pay the bill for Europe's enlargement to the east

ARTICLE FROM THE BBC WEBSITE

European leaders have agreed the next seven-year EU budget after two days of what UK PM Tony Blair described as "extraordinarily complicated" talks.
The UK gives up 10.5bn euros (£7bn) of its budget rebate, after initially offering 8bn, while the overall budget grows to 862.4bn over seven years.

In return, the EU will review all its spending in 2008-2009, including the expensive Common Agricultural Policy.

Mr Blair said it was "an agreement that allows Europe to move forward".

Referring to budget commitments to new, mainly east European member states, he told reporters: "If we believe in enlargement, we had to do this deal now."

The EU leaders also agreed to grant formal candidate status to Macedonia.

The decision had been delayed by the budget impasse, with France especially sceptical about the wisdom of expansion plans for the bloc while finances remained undecided.

'Solidarity budget'

The 2007-13 budget figure agreed represents 1.045% percent of EU output, up from 1.03% in an earlier proposal but still well below the 1.24% sought by the European Commission.


Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso nonetheless hailed the extra money, saying: "Without solidarity there is no union."

The rebate money will be used exclusively to fund the development of the EU's 10 new members, mainly from eastern and central Europe.

Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, whose country will get 4bn euros in regional aid, said it was a "budget of solidarity... good for the sake of Poland and for the sake of the development of Europe".

French President Jacques Chirac, long at odds with the British leader on budget issues, praised Mr Blair's movement on the UK budget rebate.

By accepting the need to "deeply transform" the rebate, he said, Tony Blair had made a "legitimate but politically difficult" gesture.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said to have played an important part in securing the final compromise, greeted the deal as "a good accord for the future of Europe".

A row deferred

After a pretty awful 12 months for the EU, its leaders will be glad to end the year if not exactly on a high, then on at least a success when yet another crisis was seriously on the cards, the BBC's Mark Mardell reports from Brussels.

In practical terms, the Eastern European countries can now start planning how to spend the cash they will get.

Angela Merkel played an effective role as a peacemaker rather than just as France's staunchest ally.

Tony Blair's grand project was to give Europe a modern budget, refocusing the spending of the European Union so it can face up to the challenges of globalisation rather than subsidising farmers.

He has achieved nothing like that, our correspondent says, not even the certainty that a review will apply to this budget round.

But he has ensured that the EU will return to the subject. This is a row deferred but a row that will happen, our Europe editor adds.

Your comments please:

[Xiahou]

Sounds like the UK got screwed. Essentially, they're kicking in all that extra money for nothing more than the promise that they'll "review" their spending policies.... wow, Blair must've really played hardball to get that from them.

[InsaneApache]

he's done it again....it's like being 'happy slapped' by Bliar and his cronies....

Isn't it amazing how willing this bunch of hypocritical, disingenuous and mendacious idiots love to give MY money to the EU.

Still looking on the bright side the more the EU is exposed as the sham it is, the faster, we in the UK, will open our eyes and tell the whole 'gravy-train' lot of 'em to sod off.

[Sjakihata]

Finally some sense has come to the minds of the stubborn brits. About bloody time that rebate was cut away from the wealthy britain and redirected to the 10 new poorer countries - now we only need to cut away the farm subsidises

[Geoffrey S]

This in no way solves the problem. The system still needs to be redesigned from the ground up, keeping the new nations and the different relations between older EU members in mind. There's a limit to how much strain ageing legislation can take, and this has been put off for too long.

[Ldvs]

Isn't it amazing how willing this bunch of hypocritical, disingenuous and mendacious idiots love to give MY money to the EU.

Do you smell this stench, too? Yes, I think it's egocentric reactions like yours that stink so strongly.
Considering the UK's rebate should no longer exist (nor should the CAP in its current form), be happy he didn't give up all of it. If you want your damned money back (and may you choke on it), call for a referendum and leave the EU. You'll have to pay tariffs again but you'll have your money back, your "oh so precious" money back.
I gather from the overall British reactions on this forum that setting aside one's pride and one's interests for a while is akin to a deadly sin.

Finally some sense has come to the minds of the stubborn brits. About bloody time that rebate was cut away from the wealthy britain and redirected to the 10 new poorer countries - now we only need to cut away the farm subsidises

Couldn't say it better.

[InsaneApache]

the problem is, as I have stated before, that the poltical elites in the UK and even the EU, have 'steamrollered' the idea of a one European State, whereas, at least in the UK, we were told that this was a free trade zone, similar to EFTA and FTAA, not a way for the '2nd world' in Europe to suck up money from the developed north.

I have family living in southern Europe and it's clear that without funding from the north the populace would still be barefoot peasants riding around on donkeys if this wasn't the case.

I, for one, would have liked the common courtesy from our political leaders to be asked if this is what I wanted.

Do you smell this stench, too? Yes, I think it's egocentric reactions like yours that stink so strongly.

So you think I should have no say in where and how MY taxes are spent?

[Ldvs]

So you think I should have no say in where and how MY taxes are spent?

Oh we certainly understood it is YOUR money, be reassured. What can I add besides that your reasoning is egoistic?
If you're so unhappy, exile then.

[Kralizec]

I'm not in favour of the British rebate per se, but I sympathise with Tony Blair's...previous position: only discuss the rebate if the CAP is also up for discussion.
Because France has a lot of farmers, the CAP works and feels like a rebate on their net contribution. Except that this "rebate" isn't going to the French treasury, but in the pockets of French farmers- a small, yet influential group of people that starts to bitch and moan once the policial leaders talk about discontinuing their allowance.
And now Blair has yielded the rebate, for a vague promise that the budget may be reformed in 2008 or 2009. Frankly, I have no hopes the CAP will change in a meaningful manner because France (like any other EU country) can veto any budget proposition she doesn't like.

I'm normally an enthusiast for European cooperation, but it sure isn't easy to hold on to that position. In my opinion, and I guess in that of many others, the entire EU budget should go down the crapper and be redesigned from scratch, ideally so that nobody needs to get special rebates because the calculations end up unfair for them.

[ShadesWolf]

I'm not in favour of the British rebate per se, but I sympathise with Tony Blair's...previous position: only discuss the rebate if the CAP is also up for discussion.
Because France has a lot of farmers, the CAP works and feels like a rebate on their net contribution. Except that this "rebate" isn't going to the French treasury, but in the pockets of French farmers- a small, yet influential group of people that starts to bitch and moan once the policial leaders talk about discontinuing their allowance.
And now Blair has yielded the rebate, for a vague promise that the budget may be reformed in 2008 or 2009. Frankly, I have no hopes the CAP will change in a meaningful manner because France (like any other EU country) can veto any budget proposition she doesn't like.

I'm normally an enthusiast for European cooperation, but it sure isn't easy to hold on to that position. In my opinion, and I guess in that of many others, the entire EU budget should go down the crapper and be redesigned from scratch, ideally so that nobody needs to get special rebates because the calculations end up unfair for them.

Britain used to have farmer, but we have no CAP so they go out of business as they are uneconomical are compared to state sponcered farming