New EU finance chief slams call for budget cut
AFP, Brussels
The EU's new budget chief criticised calls by the bloc's richest states to limit EU spending to one percent of gross national income (GNI), saying it would not amount to a freeze but a big funding cut. Dalia Grybauskaite, who took over as the European Union (EU)'s financial programming and budget commissioner last month, said EU member countries would themselves be the victims of cuts in EU cash. Six EU net contributor states -- Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden -- called last December for a cap of 1.0 percent of GNI for the EU's new major spending round of 2007-2013. The EU, which expanded from 15 to 25 members in May in its biggest-ever enlargement, is gearing up for major negotiations on the medium-term budget plans over the next year or two. Grybauskaite said Friday that a one percent cap would pose serious questions about what the EU wants to do. "A ceiling of one percent of commitments would require a fundamental reappraisal of what the Union is trying to achieve," she told.
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