EU budget talks reach €960bn agreement

Negotiations on the EU’s €960bn seven-year budget wrapped up last night in Brussels after months of talks that threatened to break down several times.

If passed, the deal — which needs final approval from EU states and the members of the European Parliament — will be a major victory for the Irish presidency of the European council.

The final hours of talks yesterday, led by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, eventually produced an agreement which Mr Gilmore agreed represented compromises by both sides.

This is the first time that European Parliament members have had a say in the budget deal, and they threatened to derail talks several times, including cancelling a meeting with Mr Gilmore at short notice on the basis that they were not being taken seriously.

Mr Gilmore said the sum involved — around 94% of which goes back to the states directly or indirectly — was five or six times bigger in real terms than the Marshall Plan, the American aid programme used to rebuild Europe after the Second World War.

Ireland will continue to receive more from the budget than it pays for at least the next two years. Most of the funds received go to agriculture and there is a big push on to increase the amount won by businesses and universities for research, as well as for rural and other development projects.