Polish EU official warns on budget
In an impassioned defense of European political solidarity, Hubner said in the interview with the IHT that the refusal by richer Western countries to pay more into the budget, as well as the rejection by French and Dutch voters of the EU constitutional treaty, was a signal to East European countries that they were not welcome in the EU. Hubner, a former European affairs minister in her country, became Poland's first European commissioner last year. "The new member states would like to see they are welcome and that their concerns are taken into account," she said. "They feel their positive contribution to the EU is underestimated." The delay in payments to the new members from Eastern Europe is a consequence of the acrimonious breakup of a summit meeting last week, when EU leaders failed to agree on a budget for 2007 to 2013 of €800 billion to €900 billion, or $970 billion to $1 trillion. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain insisted Tuesday that the EU could reach an agreement on the budget during the next six months, when Britain holds the EU presidency, in time for the seven-year financial package to come into effect in January 2007. She said the delay would seriously undermine the EU's plans to pour resources into new programs to improve Europe's competitiveness and growth, especially in poorer regions in the new member states. The EU has been promoting these programs, focusing on new technologies and innovation, as crucial to Europe's catching up with the fast-growing economies of Asia and with the United States. "We should be aware of the consequences," she said. "We are already on the wrong side of the river in terms of negative impact on our future, on our capacity to launch growth."
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