The news that the EU seeks a budget of £1 trillion between 2013 and 2020 inspired
disbelief rather than ire. President Barroso’s almost childlike
insistence that the proposal was ‘relatively small’ was amusing, certainly not alarming. It’s a classic EU trick: pitch for 5 per cent and a string of crazy financial measures
(including a ‘Tobin tax’ on financial transactions) in the hope
obtaining more modest gains of say 2 per cent. Barroso will also throw the odd concession into the bargain: the announcement of a £5.4bn saving on the Commission’s staffing costs represents a concession.
But, Barroso has his work cut out to secure even a 1 per cent rise on this occasion. David Cameron failed to stop Brussels’s last money grab during the negotiations to adjust the 2011-2012 EU Budget, but he did secure the signatures of 13 member states, including those of France, Germany and Holland, to reject anything but a 0
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