Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday refused to sign a letter initiated by British Prime Minister David Cameron requesting a freeze on the EU budget over the next seven-year period starting from 2014.
Dr Gonzi said that, although Mr Cameron asked Malta to support a freeze, he turned down the request because the island did not believe this was the opportune time for such an initiative.
“We think it is too early to commit ourselves on how the structure of the EU budget between 2014 and 2020 should be,” Dr Gonzi said at the end of a two-day summit which agreed on Lisbon Treaty changes to allow the EU to set up a permanent rescue bailout fund for the eurozone.
“I was invited by Prime Minister Cameron to sign this letter but we preferred not to at this point in time,” he said.
Dr Gonzi was as diplomatic as possible to ensure Malta did not come across as if it were snubbing the UK, usually a close ally. However, sources close to the summit said that, by rejecting Mr Cameron’s initiative, the island made it clear it disagreed with a future budget freeze that could jeopardise the country’s possibility of continuing to receive millions of euros in cohesion funds in the next seven-year budgetary period.
Mr Cameron’s initiative, intended to quell his Eurosceptic electorate back home, is to limit the future EU budget size to 0.85 per cent of gross national income (GNI) between 2014 and 2020 from the present 1.1 per cent.
Although this initiative was supported by a few countries, including France and Germany, the main EU paymasters, the majority of member states did not sign the letter and disagreed with a budget freeze.
Poland, the biggest of the new member states, publicly criticised Mr Cameron’s initiative and said it would fight it out when negotiations on the next financial perspectives started in the middle of next year.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso also dismissed the UK’s initiative saying the Commission “will obviously look at any letter it receives but it still intends to set its proposals next year”.
On his part, the British Prime Minister said he, together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and “a number of other European partners”, would publish a letter calling for “real budgetary restraint from 2013 to 2020”.
“This is Britain, France and Germany – the three biggest countries in the European Union – standing together united to get this budget under control,” he said.
Asked about Malta’s position over the size of the next financial perspectives, Dr Gonzi said although it was too early to speculate, “Malta will be in favour of a budget which continues to boost the EU’s economy and generate jobs and growth”.
The debate over the next seven-year financial perspective will start in June when the Commission publishes its proposals. The technical and tough negotiations which follow are expected to continue until the end of 2012 or early 2013. At the end of the day, all 27 member states will have to agree unanimously on a way forward.