EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT THREATENS TO BLOCK EC BUDGET
The European Parliament threatened to
block European Community spending plans for next year and
implied it could also hold up attempts to solve an
ever-deepening budget crisis this year.
    The Parliament voted unanimously in favour of a resolution
condemning the annual haggling and compromising between the
Community's 12 member states on spending levels.
    "It is no longer possible to resort to short-term measures
or to provisional budgetary solutions. It is no longer possible
to accept a budget in which real expenditure is not covered by
revenue," the resolution said.
    Parliamentary blocking could jeopardise efforts to solve a
financing crisis over a five billion European Currency Unit
(ECU) shortfall for this year, diplomats said. EC ministers are
deadlocked on the issue.
    It also would plunge the EC into an ever-deepening crisis
next year. Without parliamentary approval of the 1988 budget,
the Community would be forced into emergency measures, with
spending set according to the previous year's levels.
    British conservative parliamentarian Peter Price told
reporters that parliament could delay an emergency package
until EC ministers prove they are ready to find a long-term
solution.
 Reuter
