Budget Blues

EUobserver.com

The long-term budget for 2007 - 2013 will be in focus at the European Council starting in Brussels today. There will be talk of a serious crisis.

And that will be right. But we should remember that these long-term budgets have always been decided after a political wrangling that has lead to talk about crisis.

There is also time. This budget goes into effect a year and a half from now. A decision now would be good, but a decision later during this time-span would be OK as well.

The present 2000 - 2006 budget was agreed on after a major - but now largely forgotten - crisis. It was only three quarters of a year before it come into effect that an agreement was finally reached.

It might well be the same this time. And some years down the road this budget crisis might well be as forgotten as the one that preceded the present budget already is.