Ominous Budget Cuts Constrain EU Integration

For the first time, the European Union is cutting its multiyear budget at the behest of the core countries subsidizing the bloc's poorer members, which had advocated increases. The 2014-2020 budget is expected to amount to 960 billion euros (about $1.3 trillion). The negotiations highlighted diverging national interests within the European Union — interests that could fracture further as a result of the budget cuts. While the spending reductions are intended to contain rising euroskepticism in creditor countries, they also could prompt newer EU members to question the willingness and capacity of Western Europe to support development in the east.