Poland's president said Tuesday that Britain's latest proposals for a long-term EU budget were bad for Poland and Europe, insisting that economic aid promised to new member states under previous proposals remain intact.
"New member states need more funds for investment to be able to catch up," President Aleksander Kwasniewski said. "I cannot imagine the new budget will be stripped of the concept of solidarity."
Kwasniewski said that, under Britain's latest proposals, Poland stood to lose some 20 percent of economic aid promised to it earlier for some areas, a suggestion he branded "unacceptable."
Britain, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, wants to cut back on earlier plans to give euro871 billion (US$1,024 billion) for the EU's 2007-2013 budget. It is trying to win support from the other 24 member states for less farm support for all and less infrastructure funding for poorer countries.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Dec. 15-16 to try and hammer out a budget deal.
Kwasniewski, on his last visit to Brussels before his second and final term in office ends, said Poland needed allies in its fight for more money from the EU's structural funds-- economic aid available to countries with a gross domestic product under 90 percent of the EU average -- but conceded that reversing Britain's proposals would be difficult.
Some smaller EU newcomers indicated Monday they would be willing to at least consider debating Britain's new offer if it meant that economic and regional aid -- which is notoriously difficult to get to and implement -- would be available instantly.
"(Britain's proposals) are not pleasant for us, but if they were compensated by significant concessions in terms of the conditions for drawing the money, we could at start talking about it," Czech Vice Premier Martin Jahn told The Associated Press in Brussels.
"The overall volume of the money promised is high, and for us, the key thing is to agree to a budget as soon as possible to be able to use the money starting 2007," he said.
Slovak Vice Premier Pal Csaky indicated his country might be willing to consider Britain's proposals if more money was earmarked for the closure of reactors at the country's nuclear plant at Jaslovske Bohunice.
Under an agreement with the EU, the two nuclear reactors at the Bohunice plant should be closed in 2006 and 2008. The closure will be co-financed by EU money, but Slovakia is demanding more.
In a letter addressed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia say that confidence in the EU's ability to achieve consensus will be undermined if an agreement on the bloc's new budget is not reached next month.
The letter is planned to be published in European newspapers later this week and was signed by the prime ministers of the four countries before their Friday meeting with Blair in Budapest.
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