Wednesday, 30 November 2005BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The biggest new members of the European Union appealed to Britain in an open letter on Tuesday to remember promises over regional aid to poorer states in negotiations over the bloc's 2007-13 budget.
"We are to adopt the first financial perspective for the enlarged Union. We are confident that we can count on the commitment of the UK as it was the case in the pre-accession period," the Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak leaders said.
At the same time the prime ministers said that achieving a budget deal under the British presidency, which ends in December, was "particularly crucial" for their countries.
Blair will hold talks with the four signatories of the letter in Budapest on Friday after meeting prime ministers from the three Baltic states on Thursday.
Without referring directly to reported British plans to cut allocations to the newcomers by 10 percent, the four leaders said that when budget negotiations broke down in June no one had criticised the funds allocated to new member states.
The letter stressed that without ample regional aid from the European Union, the newcomers would find it difficult to catch up economically with wealthier "old" member states, some of which have received massive EU assistance in the past.
"Spending EU resources in new Member States to upgrade infrastructure, to strengthen innovation and human capital addresses this challenge, which is one of the greatest at the beginning of the 21st century for the EU," the letter said.
An official from one of the signatories said the four hoped that all 10 countries which joined in May 2004 would stand behind the proposals in the letter.
"The main thing is to show a common will, to get as many signatories as possible. The British have been offering favours to individual countries, they have tried to divide members," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Negotiations on the budget collapsed after Britain refused to agree to any curb on its annual rebate unless it won a pledge of future cuts in farm subsidies, which benefit France most.
Reuters via swissinfo
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Wednesday, 30 November 2005
swissinfo.org
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