16 June 2005, 15:04  Jean-Claude Juncker: Summit agreement on budget will be 'very difficult'

Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently holds the European Union's presidency, said today that it would be "very difficult" to reach an agreement on the EU's budget at a summit of the union's leaders that starts today. "I have a general hunch that it's going to be very difficult", Juncker told Agence France-Presse. EU leaders are poised to clash over the EU's 2007-2013 budget with the UK's refusal to surrender its long-cherished rebate on contributions to the collective pot likely to be a major point of conflict. Luxembourg has tabled a final proposal for the budget aimed at breaking the deadlock by maintaining a suggestion that the rebate should be frozen but dropping a reference to then progressively cutting it. "The last proposal from the presidency will without doubt get things going but probably not to the point that I will be able to get the approval of everyone around the table", Juncker said.

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