EU Economy: Project funding could be cut as EU battles to balance books - by Elena Cavallone

Discovering the Belgian capital by river cruise - many tourists do it each year. A new terminal has been inaugurated at the port of Brussels, designed to handle 35,000 passengers by 2030 and generate an annual turnover of five million euros.

Half of the cash to make it happen came from European Regional Development Funds.

"Europe is helping us to better integrate the port in the city, while also improving the economic impact for the city. In fact, thanks to these investments we will definitely put Brussels on the map of river tourism in Belgium," said Philippe Matthis, General Director, Port of Brussels, told Euronews.

But development projects may not get funding in the future EU budget.

With Brexit leaving a 13 billion euro hole per year, many fear cuts in cohesion spending which help to even out progress across countrie

Right now, the cohesion programme represents about a third of the EU budget. Most funding goes to eastern, former Soviet bloc countries. But southern countries like Spain and Italy are demanding cash to tackle chronic unemployment.

"Regional disparities have not stopped, on the contrary, in some areas of Europe they are growing, especially in southern Europe and in parts of Western Europe," said Francesco Molica, Founder of the Cohesion Policy Observatory.

Another hotly-debated issue is whether EU cohesion funds should be linked to countries respecting the rule of law - in the wake of concerns expressed about conditions in Hungary and Poland.

"Actually EU funds benefit not only the government but they benefit also the citizens all together and they are also proof that Europe is acting for these countries. So it is also a tool to counter Eurosceptisism," said Raphael Hanoteaux, Policy Officer at BankWatch.

Reporting from Brussels, Euronews' Elena Cavallone said: "Tough negotiations are also expected between member states about the idea of increasing their own contribution to the next EU budget. With defence and migration at the top of the priority list, the 27 might need to dip into their pockets if they want to keep the same level of cohesion spending."

Read more: Project funding could be cut as EU battles to balance books | Euronews

Europe ready to end crises and legislate on deficits

Heads of state and government from the 27 European Union states gather from today from 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) in Brussels, with Belgium on strike against further spending cuts envisaged after yet another credit rating downgrade.

For once, there is no need for "crisis" adjectives -- the rhetoric on Europe has changed much in the two years since the scale of the problems in Athens threw the eurozone into political chaos. "Imminent, very, very soon," was how senior EU sources described on Sunday night the prospect of agreement on the conditions required to underpin a fresh willingness to fix a new international bailout.

At the summit, leaders want to focus on new treaty obligations for minimal deficits -- in theory, ending ever-rising government debt -- plus the legal framework for a rescue fund dubbed a financial "firewall."

EU-Digest

U.S. ‘super committee’ on deficit inches closer to abject failure

A high-profile effort to trim stubborn U.S. budget deficits appeared near collapse on Friday as Democrats and Republicans were unable to agree on tax increases and benefit cuts.

A 12-member “super committee” in Congress has until midnight on Wednesday to strike a deal that would save at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Members say they think a deal is still possible, but aides privately are more pessimistic. Friday is shaping up to be a make-or-break day, one super committee member said.

“We should know by end of today, and I’ll give myself until 11:59 p.m., as to whether or not there will be a deal,” Democratic U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra said at a renewable-energy conference.
Congress is already facing rock-bottom approval ratings after a year of down-to-the-wire budget battles, and failure to reach a deal would likely incite further disgust among voters as the 2012 election season heats up.

For more: U.S. ‘super committee’ on deficit inches closer to abject failure | News | National Post

US Economy: "It’s time to stop deceiving ourselves about the budget" - by Dr. Erik Steele

A recent Pew Research Center survey of Americans’ attitudes about reducing the federal budget found a significant majority of us want to increase spending on Medicare and education. About half of us want increased spending for defense and the unemployed. The majority of us also want no increase in our taxes. When you add up all of what we want it’s also clear what we don’t want — reality.
 
As a result, we and our leaders have suckered ourselves into a vicious cycle of denial about what it really takes to cut deficits, a cycle that is swirling us ever faster around the national drain. We punish politicians for telling us the ugly truth, so they fail to tell us the ugly truth. Then we don’t hear the ugly truth from enough of our political leaders to start accepting it and support efforts to address it.

That cycle must be broken and there are some in politics and elsewhere who are trying. Last November President Obama’s bipartisan Fiscal Commission released its co-chairs’ recommendations for eliminating the federal budget deficit over the next 10 years. It tackled defense spending, Medicare, Social Security, subsidies we all get from the government in the forms of mortgage and health insurance premium tax breaks and much more. The recommendations were so tough that a majority of the commission’s political members ran for cover while talking about less painful options.

For more: It’s time to stop deceiving ourselves about the budget — Maine Opinion — Bangor Daily News