European Union leaders were divided at a Brussels summit yesterday over calls to pay more to fill the huge hole that Britain’s departure will leave in their budget.
EU President Donald Tusk said, the 27 leaders, meeting without Britain to discuss future plans, wanted to spend more on defence, migration and security. But there was no consensus on whether countries would each pay more into the joint budget to cover a post-Brexit shortfall of up to 15 billion euros a year.
Key economies Germany, Spain and France are all ready to pay more. But opposition is led by the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Austria, which are all net contributors who pay more into the EU than they get out.