Dutch PM wants to reduce EU budget

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wanted to adhere to the Dutch remittance reduction to Brussels, he told local reporters at the start of the European Union (EU) summit on Thursday. The Netherlands has received a reduction of 1 billion euros (1.34 billion U.S. dollars) for years, but this is likely to be renegotiated at the summit. EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to hammer out a budget for the next seven years. Massive differences over how much to spend on agriculture, development and administration will make a compromise extremely difficult. Rutte also told reporters that the multiannual budget of 1 billion euros should be lowered. "Imagine if the EU continues to spend money, while on a national level we have to cut, this would be too difficult to explain to the Dutch inhabitants," Rutte said. The Netherlands, together with countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden found the budget to be too high. If EU leaders do not reach an agreement after the two-day summit, they will have to put together a new EU budget every year, using the prior year as a starting point.