EU budget hurdles mount

The EU is hoping for agreement on the next long-term budget by the end of the year but two opposing camps in the money negotiations remain about €100bn apart.

Cyprus - steering the talks - on Wednesday published a new paper designed to push governments to coming to the point. The paper notes that all parts of the proposed budget for 2014-2020 "will need to be subject to reduction." The EU commission last year proposed increasing spending by 5 percent to €971.52 billion over the seven-ye...