EU urged to back big increase in diplomatic budget

(BRUSSELS) - Diplomats want the EU to back a 5.8-percent rise in their 2012 budget after a shortfall in the first year of the new global corps's service, officials said.

Chief European Union diplomat Catherine Ashton told the bloc's 27 foreign ministers in Luxembourg this week that the hike in the budget for her European External Action Service (EEAS) "looked big," given member state spending cuts and demands for a total freeze in the overall EU budget.

EU officials say she needs the extra money to pay for an EEAS wage increase that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled cannot legally be cut despite pressure from states led by Ashton's Britain.

That pay rise was fixed under a pre-agreed formula.

Ashton also said more money was needed for "certain services like protocol" and other expenses that were not built into the EEAS's first year of planning.

A spokesman for Ashton said some 3.7 percentage points of the increase was needed to "correct the baseline."

He insisted that the crises in North Africa and EU efforts to expand and integrate markets across the Mediterranean in a push for economic growth meant more staff would now be sent to EU embassies in countries there.

The European Commission will next week outline its proposed budget for the whole EU in 2012, with a large increase expected initially. The Brussels executive, elected lawmakers and national capitals all have their say in the subsequent negotiations.

The 2011 budget was only agreed at the very last minute when states accepted a 2.9-percent rise and similar hard bargaining is likely to play out over the final 2012 figure.

The EU is in a parallel debate over how to fund its activities for the rest of the decade, with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday saying Paris would not support plans to pay one percent of all European states' sales taxes to Brussels.

Currently, about three quarters of the EU's some 126.5-billion-euro budget ($180 billion) is paid in directly by its 27 member states.

Britain, Finland, France, Germany and the Netherlands all want a total freeze on the EU's budget from 2013 to 2020 to reflect their own austerity measures, part of policies which the EU otherwise supports with the aim of stabilising the bloc's public finances.