Juncker slams 1% budget cap

By Dana Spinant

Date: 15/01/04

CALLS by the richest member states for the European Commission to freeze the EU budget at 1% of gross national income are "thoughtless", according to the man tipped to replace Romano Prodi as Commission president.

Speaking exclusively to European Voice, Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, strongly attacked the attempt by the main contributors to the EU's coffers "to lock up Europe's ambitions with an arbitrary ceiling".

The leaders of Germany, France, the UK, Netherlands, Sweden and Austria wrote to the Commission demanding a 1% cap until 2013, just two days after talks on a European constitution collapsed at last December's Brussels summit.

Juncker said he was shocked by the "letter of the six" and the duplicity shown by those government leaders who claim they want a strong Commission.

"I am stunned to see a certain number of prime ministers saying that we need a strong Commission; yet before the Commission has expressed itself [on the EU budget], they fix limits. This is unthinkable."

The College is set to unveil its proposal on the 2007-13 financial perspectives at the end of this month.

Although his country is also a "net contributor" to the EU budget, Juncker refused to sign the letter. For him, expenditure figures should only be fixed when the Union's policy plans are known.

Juncker said he was also concerned that the Commission could find itself "totally absent from crucial EU decisions" later this year as government leaders strive to find a deal on the constitution.

"At the very moment when Europe would adopt a constitution, in the second semester, there will be no properly functioning Commission," he said, referring to the changeover between Prodi's team and the new Commission, which will take office on 1 November.

Juncker admitted that this scenario will suit most government leaders well, namely those who "would like this idea of things being "between us" , and of not having a functioning [European] Parliament and Commission.

"This will delight the intergovernmentalists," he added.

The Luxembourger bemoaned the debacle over the constitution, but insists the blame should not lie only with Poland and Spain. He pointed out that even if the two countries had dropped their opposition to a new voting system in the Council of Ministers, many other disagreements still remain.

He described positive statements made by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister who hosted the Brussels talks, as "an insufficiently consolidated oratory blast".

But Juncker said he was relieved that the constitution, as proposed by the Convention on the EU's future, was not adopted: "It would have never been ratified," he added.

He also made it clear that he was in no rush to form an avant-garde group with his closest political allies in the EU: "A core Europe cannot be an aim in itself. It could only be a consequence if member states wanting "less Europe" persist in doing so."

Juncker admitted that there were divergences between the six founding members of the EU. "There are disagreements between them which are not talked about, but which are substantial," he added.

• German MEP Elmar Brok, one of the two Parliamentary representatives on the intergovernmental conference, has said that a two-speed Europe is inevitable unless agreement on the constitution is reached by the Irish or Dutch EU presidencies this year.

Addressing the Kangaroo Group, which promotes the single market, Brok warned: "Such a situation could lead to the emergence of new alliances, something that reminds me of what happened before the outbreak of the Second World War."

He suggested that, if agreement could be reached on a treaty between, say, 24 of the 25 member states, the one country stalling on a deal should be given four weeks to reflect on the "consequences of its isolationism".

Interview with Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, in which he criticises as thoughtless calls by the richest Member States for the European Commission to freeze the European Union's budget at 1.0%.