EU budget talks collapse

Talks on next year’s European Union budget have collapsed after the European parliament refused to sit at the negotiating table with governments unwilling to pay this year’s bills. “Given the current impossibility in which member states find themselves to solve the problem of the outstanding balance, the EP cannot continue negotiations on next year’s budget,” president of the parliament’s budget commission Alain Lamassoure said. “We are not in agreement for the time being, this is not a catastrophe, we’ve suspended it. We now expect a new proposal from the commission, and then we’ll restart the negotiations,” EP’s President Martin Schulz said. The European Commission now must draft a new budget proposal for a deal before the end of this year. The UK government rejected earlier any compromise that would increase EU spending. The UK Junior Finance Minister Greg Clark said that “it is senseless that the only budget deal the EP is interested in is one that massively increases EU spending – raiding Europe’s taxpayers.”