David Cameron went into the EU budget negotiations insisting on “at worst a freeze, at best a cut” (Labour and rebel Tories had demanded that he go further and insist on a cut) and after a long night of talks, it looks as if he’s secured the “best”. For the first time in its history, the EU is set to agree to a cut in its next seven-year budget. Earlier this morning, EU president Herman Van Rompuy tabled proposals that would see the union’s spending limit for 2014-20 reduced from €942.8bn to €908.4bn – a €34.4bn cut and a saving of £400m-a-year for British taxpayers.
If approved – EU leaders have just taken a two-hour break from the onerous negotiations – a cut would be a triumph for Cameron. He will have defied those who claimed that his promise of an in/out referendum on Britain’s EU membership would leave him unable to achieve a successful outcome.
The catch, however, is that regardless of whether the EU agrees to a real-terms cut in its budget, the UK’s net contribution will almost certainly increase. This is largely due to a reduction in the British rebate agreed by Tony Blair in 2005 to meet the cost of EU enlargement (a cause the UK had championed) but a cut in the EU budget will look less impressive to voters if it turns out that we’ll still be paying more. Tory MP Mark Pritchard, one of those supported a real-terms cut when the Commons voted last October, tweeted this morning: “It will be a historic, but ‘bitter-sweet’ outcome, if the PM negotiates a real terms cut in the EU budget but sees the UK contribution rise”.
In addition, the overall budget will still need to be approved by the EU parliament and German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, the president of the parliament, has been making sceptical noises this morning. He is threatening to veto the proposed deal on the grounds that it would create a structural deficit. “The [budget] in the form currently being proposed, however, would turn what is already a legally highly questionable trend into a structural deficit,” he told EU leaders.
Worst of all, while spending on the bloated Common Agricultural Policy (a slush fund for assorted land-owning dukes, earls and princes) will be €1bn higher than under the previous proposal, spending on transport, telecommunications and energy projects, all vital pro-growth areas, will be €11bn lower.
Yet given how few expected him to be in a position to announce any kind of cut, Cameron will rightly feel that the summit has been a success for him. Having once refused to contemplate a reduction in spending, EU leaders now make Cameron-esque noises about the need for restraint at a time when EU member states are enduring austerity. The draft conclusion states: “As fiscal discipline is reinforced in Europe, it is essential that the future Multiannual Financial Framework [the seven-year budget] reflects the consolidation efforts being made by member states to bring deficit and debt onto a more sustainable path. The value of each euro spent must be carefully examined.” Arch-eurosceptic Douglas Carswell has offered the PM “three hearty cheers” this morning and so will many others in his party.
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