Britain unveiled proposals for a slimmed-down EU budget this evening and offered to pay more for the cost of the bloc's eastward enlargement but the plan drew quick fire from the European Commission, Poland, France and others.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hopes the package, which cuts planned aid to the poorest new east European member states, will pave the way for a deal at an European Union summit next week and end a debilitating standoff in the 25-nation bloc.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU executive, branded the plan unacceptable and unrealistic, attacking it as "a budget for a mini-Europe and not the Europe that we need". And French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the British proposal was unlikely to lead to an agreement.
Britain, which holds the EU presidency, proposed cutting the 2007-13 budget to €846.8 billion or 1.03 per cent of EU output, compared to the €871 billion or 1.06 per cent proposed by previous president Luxembourg.
Most of the savings would come from slashing €14 billion off aid to the ex-Communist newcomers and cutting €5 billion from rural development funds for western Europe.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz called the proposal unacceptable, saying it was "not a budget of solidarity", while Hungarian Prime Minister Ferencz Gyurcsany said it was disappointing.
Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia also criticised the plan. "Lithuania will not agree with it. The poorest countries are the ones that will have to pay," said one government official.
But Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek called the British proposal realistic and said it was worth discussing.
Britain said it would pay an extra €8 billion over seven years towards the cost of enlargement to the ex-communist countries of eastern Europe, either foregoing part of its annual rebate or paying a bigger slice of its Value Added Tax receipts.
However, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the rebate won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 would stay until EU farm subsidies were fundamentally reformed and would continue to rise.
"These proposals keep the rebate. Indeed, the rebate will rise from an annual average over recent years of €5 billion to around €7 billion per year," he said in London.
Agencies