The EU budget: An agenda for reform

The nastiest arguments in the European Union, as in any family, are the ones about money. Communautaire sentiment soon evaporates when prime ministers start to haggle over the budget. Lady Thatcher knows that as well as anyone. She first wielded her handbag against other EU leaders in December 1979, in Dublin, when she famously demanded "my money back". She then felt no compunction about obstructing most other European business until she finally won Britain a permanent budget rebate at Fontainebleau in 1984.