Britain to delay EU subsidy overhaul

THE British will wait until after 2013 for a revamp of European Union agriculture subsidies, the country’s Farm Minister said, backing away from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s calls for faster cuts.

“All people are talking about is the next financial perspective beginning in 2014,” Secretary of State for Agriculture Margaret Beckett said in Brussels yesterday.

Any overhaul is “very unlikely to begin in the first part” of the 2014-2020 EU budget period.