EU: Britain will host a special conclave of foreign affairs ministers on December 7th in an attempt to advance an agreement on the EU budget.
The current EU president will circulate new proposals on the 2007-2013 budget to member states a few days before the meeting, which is scheduled a week before the European Council.
EU diplomats confirmed the date for the meeting yesterday as several member states continued to grumble about the lack of progress on negotiating the EU financial perspectives.
"We really hope we will get a compromise in December. It is necessary for us to prepare our funding programmes," said a Polish diplomat, who added that the two critical issues in the budget negotiations - reforming the common agricultural policy (CAP) and the British rebate - were problems of the old member states.
An earlier round of EU budget talks fell apart in June when Britain rejected a proposal from the Luxembourg presidency of the EU, which would have curbed its €4.6 billion annual rebate without any corresponding deal on reforming CAP.
The rebate, a mechanism agreed in the 1980s that enables London to claw back cash from the EU, and reform of the Cap are likely to prove crucial to the budget negotiations.
France and Ireland have both argued that reform of the Cap is non-negotiable, while Britain says it won't cut its rebate without modernising the EU budget, which is worth more than €100 billion per year, and reviewing Cap.
"We share the view of most member states that the outcome will need to remain close to the Luxembourg package. In particular, we will wish to see the Cap deal of 2002 fully respected as it has already been agreed by all 25 member states," said one Irish official last night.