Romania calls proposed EU budget cut 'unacceptable'

(BUCHAREST) - Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Friday that a proposal by EU president Herman Van Rompuy to reduce the bloc's 2014-2020 budget by 75 billion euros ($95 billion) was "unacceptable."

"Herman van Rompuy's proposal is very unfavourable to us, it's a far cry from the European Commission's proposal and therefore it is unacceptable," Ponta told reporters during a press conference in Cluj, northwestern Romania.

"When something is unacceptable, we have the right to vote against it, in keeping with European treaties," he added, as quoted by Mediafax news agency.

On Thursday, Ponta said Romania should veto the proposal if it is presented during the European summit scheduled next week in Brussels.

But Romania would not "call for absurd things in Brussels," he added.

In a draft summit proposal seen by AFP, Van Rompuy suggested cuts in spending on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the bloc's largest budgetary item, and so-called Cohesion Funds, the second biggest item, which help poor European regions catch up economically and socially with the rest.

On Wednesday Van Rompuy proposed a 75-billion-euro cut the bloc's contested trillion-euro 2014-2020 budget.