The UK took over the presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2005. The six months of Tony Blair's leadership will be busy - there is much to be done and many divisions within Europe to be healed. The failure of the final summit under the Luxembourg Presidency highlighted just how deeply divided Europe's politicians are especially in the light of the 'no' votes to the European constitution in France and the Netherlands. There are a number of issues on the agenda. The most relevant to the dairy sector is the unresolved issue of financing the EU from 2007 to 2013. The British rebate became the centre of a row at the last summit. It is an easy item to pick on, but the UK government is right in pointing out that the structure of the budget needs a complete overhaul so that there is more equality between the member states. All countries have to face up to the responsibility of helping the poorest to improve their economies and increase their levels of GDP. Britain of course has to share the burden of enlargement to embrace poorer countries from east Europe but so too should other relatively rich countries.
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