Cameron Demands Spending Cuts at EU Meeting

Won't be a deal without them, he says

A promised European Union investment budget to modernize the recession-hit economy is set to be scaled back in a bonfire of competing national demands.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron demanded cuts in a proposed seven-year subsidies package of 973 billion euros ($1.3 trillion). The blueprint was trimmed once, from 1.047 trillion euros in November, and is below the 994 billion euros spent in the budget period expiring this year.

"The numbers that were put forward were much too high," Cameron told reporters before an EU summit in Brussels today. "They need to come down, and if they don't come down, there won't be a deal."