EU trillion-euro budget summit ends in failure with Britain as the main spoiler

Talks on the European Union's trillion-euro budget ended in deadlock Friday as leaders of the bloc's 27 member states failed to overcome seemingly irreconcilable differences on how to reduce spending.

"There is no agreement," said one official at the Brussels summit.

Tensions between rich and poor states and Britain's demands for austerity in the budget for the seven years from 2014 to 2020 had set the summit on a rocky course from the start.

Britain was cast as the potential chief spoiler at the meeting, with Prime Minister David Cameron threatening to wield his veto unless spending is frozen in real terms, arguing that at a time of austerity at home the EU must also make cuts.

Britain, like many countries across Europe, is responding to economic crisis with major public spending cuts and Cameron argues that at a time of austerity at home the EU must also make deep cuts.

Nearly a year after he angered his European counterparts by vetoing a pact to resolve the eurozone crisis, Cameron was again at odds with them by demanding cuts to the perks enjoyed by so-called "eurocrats" -- the well-paid EU civil servants frequently targeted by the British press.

Read more: EU trillion-euro budget summit ends in failure - The Economic Times