Last minute approval of 2011 EU budget

LAST minute approval by the European Parliament of the 2011 EU budget has spared member states from having to live off restrictive monthly stipends from January — which would have left Ireland waiting months for €1.2bn of payments to farmers to be refunded from Brussels.

The parliament eventually voted by overwhelming majority for a budget increase of 2.91% next year.

However, Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands — all net financial contributors to the EU — want to freeze the budget, insisting it rise by no more than the rate of inflation from 2014 to 2020. Poland and other emerging European countries are expected to strongly oppose this when talks on the long-term budget get under way in mid-2011.