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British Prime Minister David Cameron pauses during a press conference at Stormont Castle, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. The Prime Minister arrived in the province to announce that that the G8 will be held in Fermanagh Northern Ireland in June 2013.
BRUSSELS—Leaders from around Europe arrive in Brussels Thursday for what promises to be a turbulent summit on the budget for the 27-country European Union. And for once, Britain will be at the heart of the debate.


Facing an ever more vocal Euroskeptic electorate at home, Cameron is under huge pressure to veto any seven-year deal which would exceed the old 2007-2013 (EURO)1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) budget by as much as a euro.



Cameron is set to do the talking for some of the other member states—such as the Netherlands, Sweden and, to a certain extent Germany—who also want limits on EU spending when he opens a session of bilateral talks with EU President Herman Van Rompuy. He will demand a real cut in the EU budget, claiming that is the only justifiable outcome at a time when almost every member state has to cut its budget to lower debt.



Going into the open-ended summit which might well stretch into Saturday, Van Rompuy made a first compromise proposal that leaned toward Cameron's demands. It proposes a cut of between (EURO)3 billion ($4 billion) and (EURO)24 billion ($31 billion), depending on how the figures are read.




