A deal on the European Union's future budget can and should be reached at a December summit of the bloc's leaders, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday, according to Reuters. "I believe agreement can and should be reached at the December council and I will make every effort personally to achieve it by then," Blair said in an official invitation to fellow EU leaders to attend a meeting outside London next week. Britain holds the rotating EU presidency for the second half of 2005. "We have consulted widely and I believe there is a collective will to reach agreement in December," Blair said. Blair's spokesman said the main focus of next week's meeting would be the challenges posed by globalisation and not the bloc's budget. Attempts to strike a budget deal in June fell apart with France and Germany demanding a slashing of Britain's annual rebate from EU coffers and Blair rejecting any cut unless he was given a commitment to reduce EU farm subsidies, which Paris will not countenance for several years. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will propose on Thursday creating a European Union fund to soften the social impact of globalisation in a bid to break a deadlock over the bloc's 2007-2013 budget.
