The negotiations on the EU budget for 2014 to 2020 ended without an agreement on Friday, among other things because of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s opposition to a budget hike. Some commentators agree with Cameron’s demand that the EU must adopt the same austerity policy to which he himself must adhere. For others, the EU has again shown just how helpless it is.
George Friedman, CEO of Stratfor (a provider of geopolitical news), commented on November 27:
“…The ongoing EU budget dispute is a convenient opportunity for any government that wants to demonstrate to its public that it is being vigilant in minimizing the costs of austerity. The degree of acrimony and indeed hostility among the states – which formed and shifted coalitions over the budget while trying to shift the financial burden to other states – was startling if you looked at it through the eyes of 2000. The structures of the European Union are rapidly devolving into its constituent nation-states.”
It is in the wider debate on that highly contentious EU fiscal discipline pact that the position of the Czech Republic’s president Vaclav Klaus seems closely aligned with that of British Prime Minister David Cameron.