EU leaders welcome agreement on multi-annual budget

The European Parliament and the Council which represents the 27 EU governments Thursday agreed after weeks of talks on the European Union budgetary framework for the next seven years 2014-2020 valued at 960 billion euro. "I warmly welcome the agreement," said the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy in a statement and called for the formalisation of the deal as soon as possible. The agreement came only hours before the start of a 2-day EU summit in Brussels which will focus on youth unemployment and the economic situation in Europe. On his part, President of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso said in a separate statement that "this is a good deal for Europe, this is a good deal for European citizens, this is a good deal for the European economy." European Parliament president, Martin Schulz said it was an "acceptable outcome" but added that he will have to "fight" to gain the absolute majority of the EU Parliament which is needed to pass the 7-year budget.