Upbeat Blair to hold budget talks with EU newcomers (AFP) Updated: 2005-11-28 08:55
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will hold budget talks with EU newcomer
states in visits to Estonia and Hungary later this week, his spokesman has
announced, citing "gathering momentum" for a deal.
Blair, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union,
will visit Tallinn and Budapest on Thursday and Friday as he battles to strike a
deal on the bloc's 2007-2013 budget at a mid-December summit.
The 10 countries which joined the EU last year are particularly pushing
for a deal, since it will release much-needed funds to help their relatively
poor countries catch up with western Europe.
"We believe we are at a significant time," said the official spokesman,
confirming Blair's travel plans as he arrived in Barcelona to co-host a summit
of the 25-nation EU's leaders with their Mediterranean-rim counterparts.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) gestures
to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (R) during a
bilateral meeting at the Euro-Mediterranean summit in central Barcelona
November 27, 2005. Leaders of 35 European and Mediterranean countries
began a two-day summit in Barcelona on Sunday.
[Reuters] | In Tallinn, Blair will meet with the
three Baltic EU newcomers: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, while in Budapest he
will hold talks with the Visegrad countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
and Slovakia.
"We are going to go for a deal," said the spokesman, adding: "What is
important is that there is a gathering momentum in terms of everybody having to
step up to the plate."
The budget standoff is blocked in particular by Britain's refusal to give
ground on its long-cherished EU rebate, as well as French resistance to reform
of the bloc's generous farm aid system, of which France is the main recipient.
EU foreign ministers are to hold a special conclave on December 7 in a bid to
break the budget deadlock ahead of a December 15-16 summit in Brussels.
The British EU presidency is due to make new budget proposals for the
conclave.
The British government spokesman added that Blair is also due to travel to
Kiev on Thursday for an EU-Ukraine summit.
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