EU leaders meet in Brussels for €1 trillion budget talks - RTE.ie

European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels for talks on a €1 trillion, seven-year budget to run from 2014 to 2020.

The figure represents an increase of between 4% and 6%.

Net recipient countries, such as Poland and Spain, want a bigger EU budget, however net contributors, such as Germany and Britain do not.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down the chances of an agreement this week, even though senior EU officials warned that failure could lead to a renewed crisis and derail efforts to shore up the eurozone.

Officials preparing the meeting, which could drag into the weekend in the search for a breakthrough, said substantial cuts in spending for 2014-2020 compared with the current seven-year budget framework were the only viable basis.

But while some net contributors to the EU budget, such as Britain and Germany, are firmly agreed on the need for cuts, other powerful states, such as France and Poland, are determined to resist sacrifices directly affecting their interests.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has already proposed cutting the European Commission's planned €1,091bn budget by about €80bn.

EU officials say that represents a real terms cut of about €20bn compared with the current expenditure ceiling of €1,034bn for 2007-2013, which Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron could use to claim victory in the summit.

But Britain - along with Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands - is pushing for even deeper cuts of at least €100bn to the Commission's blueprint.

All 27 member states have a veto but Mr Cameron, under pressure from Tory eurosceptics, has been most vociferous in threatening to wield it.

Unlike previous budget deals, which EU leaders had to thrash out among themselves, Mr Van Rompuy will assume the role of chief negotiator at this week's summit, with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on hand to crunch the numbers.

The two will hold 10-minute individual "confessionals" with each of the EU's 27 leaders during the day in an attempt to divine where their ultimate red lines lie.