British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to make a final diplomatic push this week in an attempt to prevent Britain's EU presidency ending in failure. He is trying to win over leaders with a compromise to resolve the stalled EU budget negotiations and will suggest that the overall budget be slashed.
Blair is to follow up meetings with European leaders in Barcelona on Sunday and yesterday with a surprise dash to eastern Europe. He is to fly to Kiev today and to Tallinn tomorrow for meetings with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He will continue to Budapest for talks with the leaders of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
Although Britain is largely isolated and an agreement will be hard to reach by next month, a Downing Street official said yesterday: "We are going to go for a deal."
PHOTO: EPA
Blair is prepared to negotiate on giving up Britain's ?2.7 billion (US$4.60 billion) rebate. But the prime minister is only prepared to surrender the rebate in return for France and other countries reforming the huge subsidies to European farmers.
Britain has held the EU presidency since July but its six-month tenure has been marked by acrimonious disputes over the budget.
France is opposed to agricultural reforms.
A senior official involved in the negotiations said Britain hopes to win round the EU's richest countries with a compromise proposing to cut the budget from 1.06 percent of the union's GDP. It is understood that Britain wants to reduce this to around 1.03 percent -- a cut of around ?20 billion.
The agriculture secretary, Margaret Beckett, said yesterday: "The British government will want to preside over and negotiate a deal which is fair to all the EU because in the long term that is the one sustainable thing to do. It does not include being screwed, I can tell you that."
Blair met Jose Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, on Sunday night and was expected to meet Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, yesterday.
The Downing Street official dismissed as "simplistic" the idea that Blair was trying to build a coalition to take on France. He said that the new members of the EU from eastern Europe were anxious for a budget deal because they needed certainty in their own monetary plans.
Blair is trying to avoid a repeat of the budget row which led to the collapse of the last summit in June.
European diplomats are intrigued by Britain's plans to place a cut in spending at the heart of the budget, which will run from 2007 to 2013. Many believe this is a ploy to delay a row on Britain's rebate.
Britain will point out that a cut in the budget will reduce the rebate. Downing Street knows it has to give ground because the enlargement of the EU to 25 members means that the overall budget will increase dramatically, thereby boosting the size of the rebate.
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