BRUSSELS: A deal to finalise the European Union's long-term budget hit a late snag at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, after Britain objected to accounting changes that threaten to eat into its cherished budget rebate.
Earlier in the day, EU negotiators overcame opposition from the European Parliament to secure a political agreement on spending plans for 2014-2020 worth nearly 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion).
But it became clear there was an outstanding issue with the deal when British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Brussels promising to fight for his country's rebate, first negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz told a news conference that he was surprised to learn at the last minute that Cameron was resisting a compromise agreement, concerned that a loose detail could curtail Britain's rebate.
"Prime Minister Cameron is never happy when we discuss the EU budget and today I got the impression that he wasn't happy at all," Schulz said.
Cameron - under pressure at home from euro-sceptics in rival parties and his own - was upset at changes to the way Britain's annual rebate is calculated that could see it shrink by about 10 percent, officials said.
At an EU summit in February, leaders struck a deal on the bloc's long-term budget that left untouched the rebate, worth some 3.5 billion euros and politically highly sensitive.
"It's absolutely essential that we stick to the deal we reached in February and that we protect the British rebate, and I'll make sure that we do that," Cameron told reporters at the start of the talks in Brussels.
Britain's rebate was created to offset the relatively lower share of cash the country got from EU agricultural and infrastructure funds compared with other countries.
But a change to how rural development funds are paid to newer EU member states that joined the bloc after 2004 - and which are not included in Britain's rebate calculation - threatened to shrink the payment, raising British hackles.
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