VILNIUS - The French rejection of the European Union constitution may delay negotiations on the 2007-2013 EU budget and, as a result, disbursement of EU funds, Lithuania's EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget said Tuesday.
"Now it is much more complicated to achieve a good result in time. The political situation in Europe has become more complicated," EU Commissioneer for Financial Programming and Budget, Dalia Grybauskaite, was quoted as saying in the .
The EU budget was expected to be debated in June at a summit of EU leaders, but, with the results of the referendum in France -- and another probable no-vote in the Netherlands on Wednesday -- the summit is likely to focus on the fate of the constitution.
"If the (budget) decisions are taken late, the implementation of all long-term programmes would be postponed," Grybauskaite said.
"We are talking about regional policy programmes, rural development, structural funds and other international programmes. They will be delayed as there will be no legal basis to implement them," she said.
However, she expressed the hope that agreement on the EU financial outlook for 2007-2013 may still be reached at the EU summit in June, before Luxembourg hands the revolving EU presidency to Britain.
"The EU future budget is necessary irrespective of whether we have a constitution or not," Grybauskaite said.
Lithuania received 895.2 million euros from different EU funds between 2004 and 2006. The Baltic state joined the European bloc in May last year.
In another new member state, Estonia, Tunne Kelam, a conservative member of the European Parliament, has also fired a budget warning shot across the bow of all member states following the French no vote.
"If earlier there were hopes that the next financing period could be agreed in June, now the decision will probably be postponed until next year," Kelam told AFP.
"What we saw in France clearly indicated that EU enlargement and more extensive cooperation between member states has caused some shared fears among new member states and some old member states," Kelam said.
He pointed out that France was among six member states which have requested that the share of payments by individual countries into the EU budget be reduced to one percent of GDP.
The six biggest net contributors to the EU budget -- Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden -- want it to be limited to 815 billion euros (one trillion dollars), or one percent of GDP. The European Commission is angling for a budget of one trillion euros (1.26 trillion dollars) for 2007-2013.
As a compromise, the Luxembourg presidency has proposed an overall budget ranging from 865 billion euros to 900 billion euros (1.0786-1.1222 trillion dollars), representing the equivalent of 1.06 to 1.09 percent of output.
Britain, which takes over the revolving EU presidency in July, has been complicating efforts to reach a deal over the budget by refusing to reconsider its rebate on contributions to the EU budget.
05/31/2005 12:38 GMT