That clinking, clanking sound ....

I am impressed.  Whereas 36 hours ago the chances of top consent at the EU's budget negotations were as tight as the tubes of Brussels' landmark Atomium, out came what appears to be a fairly intelligent set of objectives for the next 7,5 years.

In a nutshell, the agreement establishes that with less central spending at the level of EU institutions, growth should be achieved through a continued effort to remove the barriers to cross border trade, free business establishment and private entrepreneurial innovation. 

This is a clear return to the fundamentals of the European Economic Community before it converted into a more political union after the Maastricht Treaty in the heydays of what we now know were the too glorious and unrestricted 90's, followed by the political deterioration we have seen over the past 5 years.

This back to basics angle then also means revisiting the EU's pan-European role towards the east and south and seeking a level playing field or maybe even some new members across the Meditteranean and the Black Sea, wherein particularly those member states with current economic and political difficulties could and should come to play a speerheading role, so that the EU as a whole can concentrate on intensifying relations with the US, China, Japan and Latin America.

It is almost ironic that the budget agreed by the heads of 27 governments must now confront the European Parliament who were handed the voting power over it in with the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 and apparently we can expect quite a bit of disputing over several months. 

Perhaps the members of euro-parliament should browse and travel a bit further than their little golden triangle of Brussels, Strassbourg and their hometown, to learn how much wiser the general population has become in the meantime, in particular in what concerns the moneyflow.  It may even get them re-elected in 2014. 

"More Europe" never meant more money shifted to European institutions, ladies and gentlemen.

That clinking, clanking sound; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q