European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pledged today there would be no taboos in a wide-ranging review of the European Union budget in 2008/9, covering everything from farm spending to the British rebate.
But France was quick to claim victory in having fended off until 2014 twin attempts at an EU summit and in world trade talks to scale down lavish European farm subsidies, of which French farmers are the biggest beneficiaries.
Mr Barroso said a deal reached by EU leaders on the enlarged 25-nation bloc's 2007-13 finances meant the review could yield changes in spending priorities during that same period - provided all member states agree.
"What we need to be doing is to have an overall revision of our entire budget, looking at it without restrictions or taboos," he told a news conference, arguing that Europe had avoided paralysis and was on the move again. The review would include study of "the Common Agricultural Policy of course, and the British rebate certainly", he said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, under fire from Eurosceptical media and opposition politicians who accuse him of caving in to the French, defended the deal in a heated debate in parliament on Monday.
Mr Blair, who chaired the EU summit, said the promise of a review justified yielding part of the annual British rebate, without immediate reciprocal farming concessions from France.
"As the language in the European Council conclusions makes absolutely clear, it is then possible for changes to be made to this budget structure in the course of this financing period," Mr Blair told parliament.