EUs historical budget cut

Finally, after much ado, long hours, and oodles of anticipation, the EU agreed on a deal to cut down its budget. What makes the deal special is that this is said to be the first ever reduction in the EUs spending - something much called for given the severe fiscal crisis the 17-nation bloc has been going through.
The onus of instigating these cuts can be laid mainly on UK - led by David Cameron and his hawkish fiscal stance - and Germany, with Angela Merkel helping broker the deal.
Before the readers start wondering the extent of the cuts, the budget for the EU was brought down to €960 billion, from the €1,033 billion proposed nearly two years ago by the European Commission.
"The budget would be about three percent less than the current long-term budget and represent the first ever decline in EU spending," explained an article in the CNN on the issue. The new budget has spending cuts for the bureaucracy at Brussels, as well as reductions in cross border infrastructure projects that were supposed to be beneficial for growth.
As for opposition to the deal, the French side was the most at odds. French president, François Hollande, was not in favour of the deal as he supported EU spending to help the blocs recession-hit economies.
However, challenging times call for tough measures, as Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president was quoted by the Financial Times, "We simply could not ignore the extremely difficult economic realities across Europe. So it had to be a leaner budget."
Though the budget cuts were much warranted, that the cuts were in pro-growth spending does cause some concern. However, given the dire situation that the bloc has faced for the past three years, that even put to question the very existence of the euro and the eurozone, the EU budget also has to take the raw end of the deal.
But the final call of the European Parliaments waits to be seen, as does the extent of concerns about growth in the bloc in the face of prevalent austerity. Heres hoping that the deal brings some much-needed optimism in the otherwise dreary state of the EU economies.