PARIS, Dec 27: The European Union’s Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy has criticized proposals by the bloc’s six richest members to freeze the EU community budget, saying it was not a good idea for Europe.

The demand in a letter this month by the six countries — including the “big three” of Britain, France and Germany — was an opening salvo of long-term budget negotiations set to start next month.

In an interview with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche to be published Sunday, Lamy said: “Freezing the budget means not acknowledging the value-added of community expenditure and is therefore not a good idea for Europe.”

It came after the collapse of an EU summit aimed at agreeing a first EU constitution. The talks broke down after Poland and Spain, recipients of large amounts of regional aid cash, refused to surrender generous voting rights.

The European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — is due to make its first proposals for the 2007-2013 spending round next month.

In what was seen as a widening of the row over the constitution, six net contributor countries including Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden, proposed limiting the EU budget to one per cent of GDP for the bloc’s next long-term budget planning period of 2007-2013.—AFP