David Cameron: "What we’ve achieved is an agreement that it must be cut to €908 billion. This is €80 billion lower than what was originally proposed." The spending limit, which we’ve spent the last two days discussing, is, if you like, the limit on the European credit card. It caps what the EU can spend over the next seven years, and the annual budgets that get fixed each year – they have to come in under this limit. Now, whereas those annual budgets are agreed by a qualified majority, the seven-year limit, the thing we’ve been discussing here today, is agreed by unanimity, which is why this negotiation was so important.
The spending limit, which we’ve spent the last two days discussing, is, if you like, the limit on the European credit card. It caps what the EU can spend over the next seven years, and the annual budgets that get fixed each year – they have to come in under this limit. Now, whereas those annual budgets are agreed by a qualified majority, the seven-year limit, the thing we’ve been discussing here today, is agreed by unanimity, which is why this negotiation was so important.
Under the last seven-year framework, which runs out this year, the credit card limit was €943 billion. This time the Commission and many other countries wanted to increase it to €988 billion. Instead, what we’ve achieved is an agreement that it must be cut to €908 billion. This is €80 billion lower than what was originally proposed. It is €35 billion lower than the deal agreed by the last government, which is the deal still in operation today. And if we hadn’t got a seven-year deal, if these talks had broken down, we would have had to operate under emergency arrangements. And the new credit card limit, if you like, under those emergency arrangements, what we’ve agreed today is actually €60 billion lower than that emergency arrangement.
Read full speech by the Prime Minister via this link
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/european-council-press-conference-on-eu…