CUT-PRICE EUROPE.

The hour of truth for the EU Budget will come next November. In the wake of a trouble-strewn informal seminar, when the medium-term financial perspective for the post-20006 epoch came under the spotlight, the European Commission has acknowledged that it has to go further this Autumn than just outlining policy objectives and working out the instruments for putting them into practice. The original idea was to wait until the spring to come up with a real definition of the new multiannual budget programme. The six-month postponement was intended to avoid ruffling any feathers during the Inter-Governmental Conference in charge of fine-tuning the European Constitution drawn up by the Convention. The aim was to have the negotiations wrapped up as quickly as possible: before the end of the year. When the IGC proceedings got under way, on October 4 in Rome, any lingering illusions of this kind were quickly dispelled: the Conference will be a long-drawn-out affair, and after all an obviously logical step might be to present the 25 Member States with the bill for the enlarged EU, the real one, when the time comes for them to debate a major leap forward in their political integration process.

It might be fairer to speak in the plural, that is, to talk of bills rather than a bill, because the importance of the jointly-managed Community of property will be a reflection of how high the Community of shared values aims, in line with the constitutional commitment of the government leaders. In the case of a Community, with no whistles and bells, which boils down to the achievement of a Treaty, whose main shape was sketched out at Nice, the bill would be equal to 1% of the EU's GNP. This means 27 members (Romania and Bulgaria are set to join as the forthcoming financial...