Lewandowski explains EU Budget talks collapse

The last attempt to approve the European Union's budget for 2011 ended in failure early on Tuesday 16 November, as European Union governments and the European Parliament remained locked in a power struggle.
The two sides had until midnight local time to find a deal. But talks still broke down, despite parliamentarians' having bowed to governments' demands to limit budget increases to 2.9 per cent, rather than the 6.2 per cent they had originally asked for.

In return, deputies asked for a "legally-binding" promise to be involved in future discussions on long-term EU financing, giving them a platform to call for an EU-wide tax and the scrapping of national rebates that benefit Britain, the Netherlands and others.

Tuesday's failure means that the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, will be forced to submit to governments and lawmakers another budget proposal, hoping they can agree on it at next month's EU summit, scheduled for December 16-17.

EbS