EU budget summit breaks up without agreementNovember 23, 2012 - 20:47 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Brussels summit on the EU budget has ended without agreement, BBC News reported. EU leaders are taking a short break before returning to draft a statement on when to meet and what to do next. News conferences are expected later on Friday, November 23 sources at the summit say. Hours of talks on the 2014-2020 budget failed to bridge big gaps between the richer countries and those whose economies rely most on EU funding. The UK said current EU spending levels must be frozen. The EU's government grouping, the European Council, believes it may still reach a deal early in the new year, the BBC's Chris Morris reports from Brussels. But it is hard to see how that may happen because the divisions are very clear and have become even more stark at a time of economic crisis, our Europe correspondent says. Summit chairman Herman Van Rompuy had reshuffled the allocations in his original proposed budget during the summit, but he kept in place a spending ceiling of 973bn euros (£783bn; $1.2tn). With the eurozone's dominant states, Germany and France, unable to agree on the budget, UK Prime Minister David Cameron warned against "unaffordable spending". Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Ucom General Director gives lecture at French University in Armenia The General Director of Ucom Ralph Yirikian delivered a lecture at the French University of Armenia. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. |