European Union leaders strike deal on long-term budget

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels have reached an agreement on the bloc’s new long-term budget. The agreement came after more than a day of negotiations after a previous summit had failed to resolve the issue. 

"Deal done! #euco [European Council] has agreed on #MFF [multi-annual financial framework] for the rest of the decade. Worth waiting for," Van Rompuy wrote on his Twitter account.

The agreement would set an absolute ceiling of 960 billion euros ($1.3 trillion) on the European Union's (EU) spending for the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020 and cap actual spending at 908.4 billion euros. This represents a three-percent cut compared to the 27-member bloc’s current long-term budget, which expires at the end of 2013

It is also significantly lower than the 1.03-billion-euro budget that Van Rompuy had originally proposed at an EU summit back in November. Back then, all the leaders could agree on was that they needed a second summit to decide the issue.

Read more: European Union leaders strike deal on long-term budget | News | DW.DE | 08.02.2013