Ambitious plans to kickstart the European Union's economy by putting 5 billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) of community funds into high-tech projects went back to the drawing board Monday, as EU foreign ministers argued over where the money should come from, dpa reported.
Failure to reach an agreement on the proposal would represent a major embarrassment for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who has called it a key part of the bloc's response to the economic crisis.
Ministers meeting in Brussels agreed that the money should not come out of the EU's budget for 2008, as had been originally proposed by the EU's executive, but failed to agree on alternative sources of funding, diplomatic sources said.
Member states were torn between raising the money in a one-off extra payment this year, and finding it by re-organizing the planned EU budgets for the period 2009-11.
Barroso in November proposed a 5-billion-euro cash injection for projects linking the energy grids of isolated member states and boosting high-speed internet access in rural areas. Part of the money would also be used to boost alternative sources of energy.
But EU members fell out both over the list of energy projects which the commission had identified and its plan to look for the money among the EU's unspent funds, which would normally be returned to national governments.
The commission has since come back with a revised and detailed set of projects.
Germany, which pays the largest sums into the EU budget, has been particularly critical of the package. On Monday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier denied blocking any progress, insisting however that "discussions" were still needed.
Steinmeier said he expected a deal on the proposal to be reached in time for a formal EU summit scheduled for March 19-20.
EU heads of state and government are also expected to touch on the theme at an informal meeting on Sunday dedicated to the financial and economic crisis.
...