EU leaders close in on long-term budget deal

EU leaders in Brussels on Friday edged towards a 2014-2020 budget deal that would fix the bloc's ceiling for overall spending at €960 billion, with hours of hard bargaining still expected before a final agreement is signed today. By News Wires (text) EU leaders edged Friday towards a compromise on the bloc's budget for the rest of the decade at an all-night summit, Britain pushing big spending cuts while France fought for funds to slash record European unemployment. Fifteen hours after the meeting began formally in Brussels, European Union president and summit chair Herman Van Rompuy put new figures to the leaders of the 27 member states that would mean a 908.4-billion-euro...