Blair sees way out of EU budget impasse[fr][de] 

Tony Blair did not seem to have a hard time convincing his home crowd in the House of Commons of the good reasons for the UK's decision to block a budget deal at the EU summit on 16-17 June. But in his summit debrief on 20 June Blair went to some length to calm dissatisfaction in the new members states that will suffer from the lack of a new EU budget:    

"Our position therefore was not to refuse any change to the rebate, to rule out a discussion, or to disown our responsibility to pay for the enlargement of Europe we support passionately.  I proposed that we have a fundamental review of the EU Budget, reporting in time for us to be able - midway through the next financial period - to alter fundamentally the structure of the Budget, dealing both with the rebate and the CAP. In the meantime, of course, we would ensure we paid our fair share of enlargement," Blair said. 

This midterm review, too vaguely formulated at the summit in Blair's mind, would be after the French presidential elections in 2007. Blair also put forward figures explaining that the present budget is a bad deal for the new member states.