Friday, February 8, 2013

So what are we expecting from this summit? The leaders divide into two camps - the fiscally conservative northern countries and those in the south and east that stand to benefit from more money for infrastructure and agriculture. It is believed that in the build up to the summit some consensus was reached around a budget of €950m - which would be a reduction on the last seven-year spending cycle. This will please the northern bloc. But it is also believed that in a concession to the south, the bulk of the spending, around 40%, would still go on agriculture and related farm subsidies. Indeed, two of the biggest recipients of farm spending - France and Italy - have hinted they could block the budget unless their appropriations are maintained. It is far from clear that the leaders will reach an agreement this time round, though if talks collapse its possible no resolution will be reached until late 2014.,,,Angela Merkel seems pessimistic on the prospect of resolution at this summit. I can't say whether we will be successful, the positions are still far apart. For Germany I can say that we will do everything for such an agreement to materialize because it is very important in a time of economic uncertainty and high unemployment to have a plan. We have to be careful with the way we spend but also show solidarity between net contributors and recipients. Whether we will have a joint vote or whether we will get into a situation where we will have annual tranches in the future I can't say today. It would be desirable to have a joint result but we have to wait and work hard, and that's what I will do....Well now... Why do central bankers and Treasurers from around the world invariably insult our collective intelligence with bland assurances that the euro/US dollar/sterling is in good shape/has weathered the storm/will gradually recover when it is so blindingly obvious that these statements are untrue? Not only are these statements patently false but the people who make them are almost invariably implicated in the processes that created or exacerbated these problems in the first place. If they do it to try to convince the bond and currency markets, then they are doubly stupid because markets are operated by real people putting real money on the line that generally have a low tolerance for bullshit.... Dragi thinks we are the fools that his tin pot immoral and primitive theory of the justification of unaccountable rule by selfish self enrichers defines us as. We are ignorant little people to whom he can feed any lie he likes. He thinks we shall swallow it as if thinking Tizer were little more than a tasty form of the latest exotic continental Lager. He and his kind shall soon be spat out with the same force as a proper beer drinker would Tizer if anyone were so foolish to attempt such a wildly insulting trick. With apologies to Tizer for coming anywhere close to such unpleasant people, if only, by way of metaphor.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Proposals tabled early on Friday morning for Brussels budgets for the period 2014 to 2020 would slash the EU's spending by £30 billion between 2014 and 2020 compared to current levels of spending.

The historic cuts package tabled by Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, after a bitter battle between the Prime Minister and François Hollande, the French President, could save the British taxpayer up to £500 million a year.

A "negotiating box" was tabled at 6.30am on Friday morning and the first ever that reduces EU expenditure was close to agreement after Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, threw Germany's weight behind Britain during almost 20 hours of gruelling talks.

"For the first time in the EU's history there will be a real budget cut," said Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania's President and former EU budget commissioner during the last seven year Brussels spending round in 2005.

The cuts include a £1.7 billion reduction in the size of the EU's administrative budget.

Anonymous said...

As cargill55 wrote below:

"' Victory for David Cameron as EU budget is cut for first time in history'We still pay £15 billion a year budget contributions to the corrupt, anti democratic and wasteful EU.
£500 billion a year is a drop in the ocean compared to the £65 billion total annual EU costs fro Britain.
Britain is still the loser in the EU."

Hundreds of thousands of our fathers, grandfathers and Allies died horrible, gruesome deaths in WWII so that Britain would be free of European domination, exploitation and control.

Many more gave their limbs, their blood, their futures, their hopes and dreams.

Did they all suffer and die in vain?

Take out your family albums .... look into their eyes.

Anonymous said...

Since Hollande comes from a country, France, and a party, Socialist, who consistently spend money they do not have to a spectacularly irresponsible degree and make up a part of the shortfall by squeezing french businesses to the verge of bankruptcy it comes as no surprise that he wishes to promulgate the same system in the EU !!!