EU budget talks broke down last month over a bitter dispute between Britain and France. Everyone agrees that the UK's infamous budget rebate has to go, but Tony Blair says any changes to rebate must be linked to reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). This is unacceptable to the French, who are stalwart defenders of the EU's bloated farm subsides program.
The failure of leaders to agree to a budget puts the the EU in "a deep crisis" according to the then president of the EU, Jean Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Without significant reform of the budget, the EU's current structure will be soon become untenable. The crisis is only exacerbated by the failure of referenda on the Constitution in France and the Netherlands a month earlier. By delaying a final decision on the budget for at least six months, European leaders are simply delaying the inevitable battle over redefining "Europe" that the failure of the Constitution engendered. This begs two questions: how long can they wait and how many crisis can the Union handle before it begins to fall apart?
The failure of leaders to agree to a budget puts the the EU in "a deep crisis" according to the then president of the EU, Jean Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Without significant reform of the budget, the EU's current structure will be soon become untenable. The crisis is only exacerbated by the failure of referenda on the Constitution in France and the Netherlands a month earlier. By delaying a final decision on the budget for at least six months, European leaders are simply delaying the inevitable battle over redefining "Europe" that the failure of the Constitution engendered. This begs two questions: how long can they wait and how many crisis can the Union handle before it begins to fall apart?
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