EU leaders reach budget deal

European leaders have reached agreement on the EU´s long-term spending plans.

The president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy announced the news with a tweet message after he chaired the meeting of 27 leaders.

The agreement – after 24 hours of negotiations – fixes EU spending at 960 billion euro over the seven years from 2014 to 2020.

Prime Minister David Cameron called it a “good deal for Britain”. He is one of those who has been pressing for a reduction.

This is the first ever net reduction to such a budget in the EU’s history.

The number is down by some three percent from the last seven-year plan.

It now has to be approved by the European Parliament, which could take months. Approval is far from guaranteed as leading legislators have already expressed opposition.

“The European Parliament will not accept this deficit budget if it is adopted in this way. That is certain,” the parliament’s president Martin Schulz said.

The deal took so long to reach deal because it had to meet the demands of northern European countries such as Britain and the Netherlands that wanted belt-tightening, while maintaining spending on farm subsidies and infrastructure to satisfy the likes of France and Poland.

Deal done! #euco has agreed on #MFF for the rest of the decade. Worth waiting for.

— Herman Van Rompuy (@euHvR) 8 février 2013

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