EU finance ministers looked set today to allow Britain to pay in instalments a massive 2.1-billion-euro surcharge after London set up a new showdown with Brussels by refusing to settle the bill by next month.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has refused to meet a December 1 repayment deadline, saying it could hasten his increasingly eurosceptic country's path towards the EU exit door in a 2017 referendum.
A proposal to allow Britain to defer payments of the bill has been introduced by Italy, which holds the rotating EU presidency, and would also help out the Netherlands which has been landed with a 642 million bill.
The surcharges are based on a recalculation of member states' budgets over several years but first emerged at a summit in October, sparking Cameron's fury at the short deadline.
Finance Minister George Osborne vowed to get a "better deal" for his country as he arrived for the meeting.
"The demand that Britain pays 1.7 billion pounds on the 1st of December is unacceptable," he told reporters. "I will make sure that we get a better deal for Britain."
A row over the bill has overshadowed new European Commission chief Juncker's first week in office, with Juncker accusing Cameron of having a "problem" with other leaders after the British premier brought it up at the October summit.
Cameron's position is influenced by his political troubles at home, where his Conservative party is under threat from the eurosceptic UK Independence Party of Nigel Farage ahead of a general election in May.
The Italian plan being discussed by ministers today - the contents of which were confirmed to AFP by a European source - solicits "exceptional circumstances" under which member states face large budget surcharges.
"This should allow for the Member State concerned to defer the required payment over a reasonable period of time," it says, although the length of the delay was not specified in the proposal.
Irish finance minister Michael Noonan said he was open to a new deadline of the end of 2015, with the payments in instalments.
Netherlands finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who also heads the influential Eurogroup of countries that use the single currency, said he was "working closely with the British government."
"I haven't seen the solution yet but everyone is helping to find it so I'm optimistic," he said.
