A deal on the EU's long term budget has been hailed by the leaders of the main EU institutions.

"I am delighted to announce that today we have a political agreement on the European Union's future budget," said the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in a statement on 27 June 2013.

The 2014-2020 budget of €960bn, known as the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), was agreed by national government in February but has been blocked by the European Parliament.

In a concession to the European Parliament, unspent money will be transferred from one year to the next, rather than returning to national budgets as at present.

Mr Barroso said it was a "good deal for Europe" and pointed out that the agreement would allow "frontloading" of the budget on policy areas such as youth employment and research.

This will be the first MFF to see a real-terms cut, and a vote to approve the deal is expected to take place at next week's plenary session of the parliament in Strasbourg.