Merkel hopeful of reaching arrangement on EU budget

November 24, 2012 12:31

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed optimism that an agreement on the European Union's 1 trillion Euro draft budget for 2014-2020 could be reached early next year.

In spite of the failure of the EU leaders to reach a deal on the budget at their two-day special summit, which concluded in Brussels on Friday, their discussions showed "great potential for an agreement and a good basis to continue our work", she said.

Therefore, "we are optimistic that an agreement could be possible early next year," she told a news conference after the meeting.

The summit ended in a deadlock as the EU leaders could not bridge the differences between the richer nations, which are the largest contributors of the EU funds and the poorer nations, which are the main beneficiaries, over whether to increase the budget or to reduce it.

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