German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said today that he will continue to insist on a spending cap for the long-term European Union budget of one percent of EU gross national income.
"Germany still thinks this (that a one percent cap is needed), with all vigour," he told a news conference when asked whether there was flexibility in talks on the bloc's controversial long-term budget. He made no further comment.
The bloc's paymasters - Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden - want the budget capped at 1.0 per cent of EU gross national income, while the European Commission says a rise to 1.14 per cent is needed to pay for its policies.
The 25-nation bloc has set the goal of clinching an agreement on the long-term budget at a summit in mid-June. But talks in Luxembourg on Saturday ended in deadlock as the big six contributors clashed with advocates of higher spending in 2007-2013.
The new 7-year budget is expected to shift resources from "old" western Europe to the much poorer former communist countries that joined the bloc in May 2004.
EU law requires unanimity on the budget and failure to agree in June could delay a deal until late 2006, after Britain's presidency and a German general election in September 2006. The British have refused to give up their right to an exclusive budget rebate.