EU ends year on upbeat note - but many challenges ahead
Brussels - The European Union ended 2005 on a more upbeat note than expected as leaders clinched a last-minute budget deal in the early hours of December 17, ending months of growing acrimony and bickering among the bloc's 25 governments.
Agreement on the budget lifted the mood of crisis that has enveloped the bloc since the rejection this summer of a new EU constitution by French and Dutch voters and the breakdown in June of negotiations on the new multi-annual budget. But the year ahead will bring new challenges as leaders struggle to revive efforts to win popular support for the constitution and negotiations speed up on EU membership of Turkey and Croatia. Having recognised Macedonia as a candidate for EU entry, relations between Brussels and the western Balkans will also dominate the bloc\'s agenda over the coming year.
As the EU presidency passes from Britain to Austria on January 1 - and then to Finland in the second half of 2006 - palpable relief at having clinched the 862 billion euro eleventh-hour budget deal at the summit in Brussels is mixed with growing recognition that the bloc must avoid similar fractious financial scenarios in the future. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is leading calls for a rethink of how the EU agrees its joint finances, including suggestions that the bloc should introduce a common EU tax to raise funds for joint spending.
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