EU budget to see 6.8% hike

Next year’s EU budget of €138bn includes an increase of 6.8% because of the massive, last-minute bills it is receiving from member states for spending on areas such as agriculture, research and other EU policies.

Several governments have publicly said they will not fund such an increase, but commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told them yesterday they cannot demand money from the EU on the one hand, and refuse to pay their contribution on the other.

He especially hit out at the British prime minister David Cameron, who he said was, in private, looking for the EU to increase spending on the ITER nuclear fusion research project, while publicly demanding a cut in the EU’s budget. “Do the British people know this?” he asked.