Although European leaders failed to reach a final agreement, the Romanian president says the meeting was a success, in that the 27 states solved two important problems: they reached a final figure for the total EU budget, of around 930 billion Euros, and included the Fiscal Compound in the Council’s conclusions. President Basescu also said that Bucharest had obtained more relaxed conditions for accessing EU funds, and a gradual increase of direct payments for Romanian farmers, by 5 billion Euros.

The Brussels meeting saw conflicting attitudes. While the largest contributors to the EU budget, such as the UK, Germany and Sweden, want spending to be reduced, the net beneficiaries of those funds, including Romania, want the funds to be increased or at least frozen. The international media sees the summit as a failure that darkens the image of a European Union still affected by the economic crisis. Many European officials, including Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel or the French president Francois Hollande, insisted that there was potential for an agreement.

A veteran of EU budget summits, Euro Group president Jean-Claude Juncker said no EU multi-annual draft budget had ever been endorsed in the first attempt. On the other hand, the international media says the meeting has proved the limits of solidarity between the EU members, for which it is the national interest that will ultimately prevail. But the image outlined by this meeting might be changed for the better early next year, when European leaders are scheduled to discuss again the same topic of the future EU budget.