"A bigger achievement than it seems
Leader
Monday December 19, 2005
The Guardian
The Brussels EU budget summit may not have been anyone's triumph - but that does not mean that it was a disaster - and there is a good argument for seeing it as a solid success for the 25-nation Europe as a whole. In any case, a British victory of the traditional us-against-them kind was not on offer, not least because the massive issue of the common agricultural policy was not on the table, but also because when 25 heads of government are gathered in search of a solution which any one of them can veto, compromise must ultimately prevail. And compromise was what the 25, under the British presidency, finally produced. Given the challenges to old thinking that have been required in Europe this year - absorbing enlargement, continued economic stagnation, a revolt against the EU constitution and the Turkish question, among others - last week's summit may seem in time to be a more substantial achievement than it appears today. The 25 have made the system work. Don't knock that."
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