The need for a compromise

Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, insisted it was always going to be difficult to produce a consensus in a single meeting given the current crisis, calls for budgetary restraint and the need for unanimity among all member states. He said it was still feasible to find a compromise at the beginning of next year and warned that the cost of no agreement would be too high for both the EU and all member states.

Europe as a shared project

José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, pointed out: "We had the most complex and difficult negotiations ever. For the first time we are discussing the cuts of the [long-term budget] in relation to the previous one." He also added: "We are all net beneficiaries - Europe is a shared project. Even net contributors gain enormously from the joint programmes."

Leaders' reactions

Joseph Daul, the French leader of the Christian Democrat group, said that the long-term budget was not only about the budget, but that it was also a political act for the future of Europe. He added that no agreement would be better than a poor agreement. He said that instead of thinking about next elections, we should be thinking about future generations.

Hannes Swoboda, the leader of the social democrats, hit out at Van Rompuy for not defending Europe at last week's summit. "It seems a scapegoat has been found: the administration costs too much. We need an international administration able to carry out its tasks." The Austrian MEP added that if the EU makes significant cuts in its security and defence policy and development aid, it doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian leader of the Liberal Democrats, criticised how the discussion at the summit focussed on additional cuts. He said the only way to avoid paralysing negotiations in future, would be to get rid of national contributions to the EU budget and use a system of own resources.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the French co-chair of the Greens, said we were witnessing the end of the long-term budget. "We need to redefine how we use our money and learn to spend better. If we want to create jobs we need the means to do it," he added.

Jan Zahradil, a Czech member of the ECR group, lambasted some group leaders for portraying national governments as enemies in the debate on the long-term budget. He asked for an end to war rhetoric.

UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen said the Commission did not control the funds properly. "We have been giving more and more money to projects that make no sense."

Gabriele Zimmer, the German leader of the GUE/NGL group, said that the proposal put forward by Mr Van Rompuy was unacceptable as it goes beyond the Commission proposal that she described as a red line for her group. She called for a "budget of solidarity fit for the goals of the European Union".

Budget committee

Alain Lamassoure, chairman of the EP's budgets committee, asked: "How can EU leaders agree on the long-term budget if they cannot even agree to pay the bills for 2012?" He added that the EU budget has proved to be not the least common denominator among member states but the greatest common divisor and called for funding of European policies by European resources, mutualisation of debt at EU level, solidarity among countries and the introduction of mid-term revision of the budget.