EU head urges lawmakers to pass 2020 budget

(BRUSSELS) - EU chair Herman Van Rompuy urged lawmakers Monday to "think twice" before voting down a cut in the bloc's budget for the rest of the decade.

"With a budget of one percent of the EU's GDP, we aren't going to be able to resolve all the problems of unemployment," European Union President Van Rompuy said in a tense presentation to the European Parliament.

"It's a contribution," he said of the deal for a seven year budget agreed at an all-night summit on February 7-8 that would give Brussels a guaranteed outlay of 908.4 billion.

The budget deal, to cover years 2014 through 2020, is a cut of some three percent on the 2007-13 package.

"We need to keep a sense of proportion," he said, urging MEPs to "think twice" about rejecting the compromise figures -- a first-ever real-terms cut in six decades of the EU -- in a July vote.

In a debate that saw Van Rompuy largely isolated -- save for English Conservative MEP Martin Callanan -- the former Belgian premier said a failure by the parliament to back the budget would hit scientific research and investment, key drivers for growth and jobs.

"Big projects depend on this," he said, stressing that "to avoid any delays and uncertainty, I urge parliament and (EU leaders) "to conclude (negotiations) quickly" or face "deadlock."

Parliament head Martin Schulz has warned the summit deal was unacceptable while European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso also urged lawmakers to stand firm in negotiations.

The leader of the EU-wide group of conservative MEPs, Joseph Daul, said his members were mainly demanding "a watertight commitment to a review clause within two-to-three years."

Socialists counterpart Hannes Swoboda said "there will be no majority for (this deal) in this chamber."