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20.09.2005 - 17:44 CET | By Andrew
Rettman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is likely to
propose a new timetable for renegotiating EU farm aid as well as offer extra
cash for competitiveness in 2007-2013 after its brainstorming session on Tuesday
(20 September), but France says that neither idea would help create a budget
deal by the end of the year.
"My guess is, they will not put forward a
new [budget] proposal", commission spokeswoman Francois Le Bail told EUobserver.
"But they will discuss putting elements of a new compromise on the table, such
as on the rendezvous clause and flexibility in general".
The 'rendezvous
clause' is an idea that emerged during the failed budgetary summit in June,
under which member states would agree a 2007-2013 budget in principle but then
get together before 2013 to overhaul key areas such the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) or the British rebate.
On the research front, budget
commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite asked her colleagues on Tuesday (20 September)
to propose shunting 30-50 billion of structural fund aid towards
competitiveness goals and to create a new restructuring fund worth a few billion
euro to help out firms, such as European textile producers which are struggling
to respond to modern market forces.
Ms Grybauskaite originally presented
these ideas before the June summit, but opted to relaunch them publicly this
week in order to help kick-start the budget debate in a fresh, up-front climate,
her spokesman Robert Soltyk indicated.
France not keen on new
ideas
But the French delegation, one of the protagonists in the June
budget battle, has already poured cold water on any talk of greater flexibility
or new competitiveness funds on the basis of ongoing talks with other member
states.
A French diplomat said that all but two member states, including
the UK and one other, favour sticking with the Luxembourg presidency's final
negotiating box as the basis of the next round of formal negotiations in
December.
The box envisaged freezing the British rebate at 5.5 billion
per year and keeping the present CAP structure until 2013 but with a commission
study into farm aid published by 2010.
"The whole point of the
multi-annual framework is to avoid complex discussions in these seven years of
issues that have been around for over 20 years", the French source indicated.
"It is not appropriate to manage European financing like that".
On
competitiveness, the French diplomat indicated that over 20 member states,
including the UK, believe the Luxembourg proposal already gives enough scope for
channeling extra funds into research and development if and when the need
arises.
The UK presidency, which is currently in bilateral talks with
member states in preparation for the December summit, hinted that France might
have less support for the Luxembourg box than it claims to, however.
London aims to publish its new compromise text in early November.
MEP slams Brussels' budget philosophy
Meanwhile,
European Parliament budget rapporteur Reimer Boge attacked any plans to revive
the Luxembourg box, saying the draft deal robs key projects in areas such as
Trans-European Networks, lifelong learning and the Common Foreign and Security
Policy of between 20-40 percent of funds.
Mr Boge is in favour of
restarting talks on structural budget reforms from scratch and placing EU
funding under the ad hoc system of article 272 of the Treaty until a long-term
solution is found.
"We should reopen the debate and not try to repair the
compromise on this or that aspect. This is not enough", he said.
"The
commission position seems to be just to get a compromise, that any compromise is
better than no compromise", he added.
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