New east European members of the European Union voiced anger on Monday at budget proposals they say would rob them of vital aid while continuing to channel money to wealthier states such as Spain. Foreign ministers of the 25-nation bloc clashed at their monthly meeting over new proposals by EU president Luxembourg that provide for a gradual phasing out of so-called "cohesion funds" to the poorest "old" member states in the 2007-13 budget.
The Luxembourg proposals contained no expenditure figures to avoid fuelling controversy in France and the Netherlands before crucial referendums on the EU constitution on May 29 and June 1.
Monday's ministerial discussion of the new ideas was largely an exercise in setting out national "red lines" and bargaining positions, two months before a deal is due to be clinched, with no side giving much hint of flexibility.
The six main net contributors - Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria - stuck to their demand that overall spending be capped at 1 percent of gross national income (GNI) rather than the 1.14 percent proposed by the European Commission.
New members such as Poland and the Baltic states said the principles contained in the so-called "negotiating box" meant they would not even receive funds from the EU equal to the full 4 percent of their gross national incomes, which they are entitled to under EU law.
"We cannot accept politically to make savings at the expense of poorer countries to give to richer ones," Polish European Affairs Minister Jaroslaw Pietras told reporters.
Spain, on the other hand, voiced satisfaction that the proposals meant it would continue to receive substantial aid from Brussels even though it is no longer among the poorest member states since the bloc's eastward enlargement last year. "Up to now, the negotiating box was black. From today, the box is clear for Spanish interests," Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters.
The big contributors demand that most of the savings be made by cutting aid to Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, which have been the main recipients for the last decade. Ireland, another beneficiary, has now overtaken the EU average living standard.
Aid to Europe's poorest regions is the second largest item in the roughly 107 billion euro annual budget after farm subsidies, with agriculture swallowing 43 percent and regional aid around 35 percent.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier spelled out what he called Paris' "red lines", insisting that a 2002 deal to maintain EU agriculture spending at current levels until 2013 be respected without change.
The other French demands were keeping the current allocation levels for peripheral regions such as France's overseas territories, and getting rid of Britain's rebate from EU coffers, worth more than 4 billion euros a year.
Several key ministers were absent with Britain's Jack Straw campaigning for re-election and Germany's Joschka Fischer fighting for his political life in a parliamentary hearing on a visa scandal.
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