ACN
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is now at the helm of the European Union (EU) at a time marked by the crisis generated by the rejection of the European Constitution in the popular consultations in France and the Netherlands, as well as by the disagreement of the community partners regarding the financing of the EU from 2007 to 2013, based on which the structural funds that the Canary Islands may receive during the same period will be set.
On July 1, London took over from Luxembourg. Now, Blair, who has been singled out as one of the main causes of the deadlock in the financial perspectives by conditioning the modification of the 'British check' to a parallel review of agricultural aid (CAP), takes on the role of arbitrator in these negotiations with the aim of reaching the agreement that his predecessor, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, could not close.
In this regard, Tony Blair stressed yesterday in London that his intention is to do "what he can" to "move forward and reach an agreement" regarding the future European budgetary framework.
The new President of the Council made these statements after the meeting he held with his counterpart from the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, who, in turn, insisted on the need for all Member States to make their positions more flexible in order to reach a consensus on the financing of the EU.
The British Presidency expresses, in its document of priorities for this second semester of 2005, that it "will continue the debates on future financing, taking as a basis the progress made to this day." London intends to resolve the pending issues with the "objective of reaching a global agreement." To this end, the Presidency "will initially consult all interested parties."
In this sense, the latest proposal from the previous Luxembourg Presidency of the EU, which concluded its mandate on June 30, presented an improvement for the specific aid to the Canary Islands, and the rest of the outermost regions (ORs), within the framework of the structural and cohesion funds, which had been reduced in the previous documents.
Luxembourg's offer - rejected by Spain as it did not fully meet national interests - granted an additional 537 million euros for the Canary Islands based on its outermost status through aid of 35 euros per year per inhabitant and an exclusive surplus of 100 million euros.
However, the last paper of the previous Presidency did not include the Islands in the gradual exit (phasing out) of the 'convergence objective' - which receives the bulk of the Regional Policy aid - as it stipulated for Madeira, despite the fact that the income level of both outermost regions is similar.
This could therefore be London's exit proposal in the financial perspective negotiations, where the Government of the Archipelago maintains as its objective the equalization of the treatment of the Canary Islands and Madeira.
SUMMIT ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE
During the joint press conference of both presidents, there was talk again of the current crisis that the EU is experiencing. Beyond overcoming it through the achievement of an agreement in the financial field, Blair considered that it is necessary to open the debate on the European social model at a time when economic reforms are necessary if the objective of making the EU economy competitive is to be achieved.
For this reason, the President of the Council announced the convocation of an extraordinary Summit next autumn to analyze the future of Europe. For his part, Barroso assured that the European Commission will present a document on this issue.
