EU budget talks stall, threatening EU treaty reforms: Lewandowski

At a press briefing on Friday in Brussels, Janusz Lewandowski, Member of the European Commisison in charge of Budget and Financial Programming, warned about the need to agree on a European budget for 2011 unless taking the risk of blocking the financial implementation of some parts of the Lisbon Treaty. The European Union failed Thursday to reach an agreement on the budget for next year with the European Parliament. A new round of conciliation will be held on Monday. Member states want the budget for payments (the actual cash spent over the year) to increase by no more than 2.91% from this year’s level of EUR122.9 billion, while the European Parliament is pushing for a 6.2% rise.