EU anger at Britain's veto threat
LONDON, England -- EU leaders are urging Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to reconsider his threat to use the veto to protect Britain's multi-billion pound rebate.
Straw sparked fury in Brussels on Sunday by entering talks on the rebate's future vowing the UK government would block the EU's entire future spending proposals if they included ditching a deal which cuts Britain's EU bill by £3 billion ($5.5 billion) a year.
Sweden's state secretary Lars Danielsson retorted that Britain was "a minority of one" and had to accept the rebate could not continue for ever -- whatever political difficulty that posed for the government.
And Luxembourg's deputy foreign minister said threatening to use the veto was no way to start the negotiations.
Straw was on the attack as soon as he stepped out of his car, insisting the rebate was justified when it was won by former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and was still fully justified.
And he said if the rest wanted to make spending savings they should rein in the overall size of the proposed new euro-budget in line with the levels of national prudence all treasuries were going through.
Straw pointed out that the European Commission was proposing a 35 percent increase in EU spending under a new financial package for the period 2007-2013.
"That is completely unacceptable. No national government would ever propose an increase of this level," he said.
Straw said the UK had been given the rebate because the country received relatively little back from the EU budget in the form of farm subsidies and grants to poorer regions of the EU.
Even with the rebate, he said, the UK was paying more towards the EU budget than many other wealthier member states.
The government has already firmly rejected the commission's claim that the UK is now the second wealthiest nation in the EU and no longer needs a "discount" on its EU payments.
Chancellor Gordon Brown also indicated that the government was in no mood to back down on the issue.
Interviewed on the BBC, Brown said: "If we did not get the result that we wanted, we would not hesitate to use our veto."
Sunday night's talks launched three weeks of intense negotiations ahead of a mid-June summit of EU leaders to to sort out the future euro-budget.
A deal does not have to be done in the next few weeks, but Luxembourg, holding the EU presidency, is pushing hard to get the new EU spending package agreed as it hands the presidency on at the end of June.
After hearing Straw's opening salvo last night, Luxembourg's Deputy Foreign Minister, Nicholas Schmit, said: "I don't think we will get a deal (by the end of June) if (the UK) starts by threatening a veto. I just wish good luck to the next presidency."
The next presidency is that of Britain and Blair himself - and observers say it will be virtually impossible to sort out the rebate's future while British ministers are running the EU agenda.
