Romania is willing to give up some of the money it is supposed to get from the European Union after accession, if this leads to an agreement on the long-term European budget, President Traian Basescu stated.

The President says Romania will do this if the 10 new member states of the Union as of May 1, 2004 adopt a common stand, whereby they agree to get less money than initially agreed. "The fundamental resource for Romania''s development is the creation of a proper business environment and not necessarily 30 or 28bn euros we would stand to get from the EU between 2007-2013," the head of state said yesterday at the Franco-Romanian business forum. The summit of the EU heads of state and government failed to adopt the 2007-2013 budget at the end of last week. The old EU members, the United Kingdom and France, above all, did not want to have their Brussels-allotted funds diminished for the sake of funding the expansion of the Union.

Under the circumstances, the new members have expressed willingness to give up some of the funding they are supposed to get to help reach an agreement, a position to which Romania might rally, as well, Basescu says. According to Foreign Minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, Romania should get 30bn euros from 2007 through 2013. The authorities have stated that the amounts granted for 2007-2009 are "ironclad" as they are stipulated in the Accession Treaty.

In response, the former Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana (currently the Social Democrat Party leader) stated yesterday that nothing was final, despite being included in the Treaty, as the amounts in question (11.6bn euros) could not be allocated in the absence of an agreement on the entire budget. Which does not exist at the moment.

On the other hand, the NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu yesterday stated that the expansion of the EU would not be possibl