PM arrives at 'difficult' EU summit

David Cameron has arrived at the EU summit vowing to "build alliances" to block a massive rise in EU spending next year.

"In some ways I think it might be quite a difficult meeting," he said.

"The European Parliament wants to see a 6% increase in next year's budget.

"It's unacceptable at a time when European countries are taking tough decisions on their budgets and having to cut departments.

"It's completely wrong European institutions should be spending more money on themselves in the way they propose. Six per cent is not acceptable, I want to build alliances with colleagues, put a stop to that and see if we can do something better."

The plans for increased EU spending next year are not on the summit agenda, but Mr Cameron paved the way for a confrontation by telling the Commons on Wednesday that the 5.9% rise sought by Euro-MPs and the European Commission was "completely unacceptable".

Chancellor George Osborne wanted a spending freeze, but was outvoted by other EU finance minister recently, when they pegged back the proposed 5.9% rise to just 2.9%.

Downing Street accepts that there is now no prospect of getting next year's increase to zero, or even below 2.9%. Even keeping it down to 2.9% will involve tough negotiations, not least because many countries are net recipients from the budget.

Meanwhile, the summit was braced for a separate clash over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's bid to re-open the Lisbon Treaty barely a year after it was finally approved.

Arriving in Brussels she went straight into private talks at the summit with her strongest ally, French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Berlin and Paris are piling the pressure on other EU leaders to recognise the need to revise the Treaty to toughen economic sanctions against member states in the eurozone which breach debt and deficit rules.

Copyright © 2010 The Press Association.