The budget deal reached by the state governments represented
in the European Council in Feburary 2013 would mark the first decrease in the
E.U.’s seven-year budget , pending approval by the European Parliament. According
to The Telegraph, “the deal sets members’ total payments to the EU for
2014-20 at €908.4 billion (£770 billion). Payments were £800 billion for the
previous seven-year round.” This was precisely what the conservative British
prime minister at the time, David Cameron, wanted. “I think the British people can be proud,” he
said after the deal had been reached. “Every previous year these deals have
been agreed, spending has gone up,” he added. “Not this time.” Beyond the relevance of the prime minister’s
rather obvious small-government fiscal-conservative ideology, his “victory” in
the European Council is in line with his strategy to keep his state in the
Union.
The full essay is at Essays on the E.U. Political Economy, available at Amazon.