So we have a budget deal! Or, at least, a negotiating position that the Council of Ministers can take to the negotiations with the European Parliament in order to decide the final outcome. (This is an aspect that most newspapers seem to have overlooked!)

Even before the deal was clinched, I had to defend the government's position on the BBC's Newsnight programme and on Radio 5, against Tory accusations that it was a sell-out. A "sell-out" that will see the size of the UK rebate increase over the coming years, and the overall size of the EU budget as a proportion of GDP remaining well below what it has been in recent years, despite enlargement! Frankly, nobody else in Europe believes that the UK has been lax in defending its interests - rather the contrary, that it has been too successful.

In fact, Tony Blair had a thankless task in trying to reach an agreement on the budget. He had to reconcile the six countries who wanted to limit EU spending to 1% of GDP with those who wanted a much larger budget. He had to deal with Mr Chirac, who wanted to ring-fence all agricultural spending. He had to deal with the expectations of the new member states, who understandably want the kind of assistance to poorer countries that the EU has provided in the past. He also had to deal with the frankly rather less defensible demands of some long-standing members seeking to preserve their privileges – such as Spain wanting to remain a net beneficiary to a greater extent than the much poorer central European countries, and Luxembourg which, in per capita terms, is both the richest member state and the biggest net beneficiary! He had to deal with all those who thought that a cost-free way (for them!) to increase resources was to eliminate the British rebate. So it is a tribute to his negotiating skills that he secured a deal at all!

In the absence of an immediate new cut in agricultural spending, there will be no change either to the UK rebate, which remains intact, other than the adjustment in favour of the new member states mentioned above. But the absence of a new cut to agriculture should not blind us to the major changes to the CAP that have already been achieved - see my blog entry for 15 December. If I have one criticism of the government, it is that it fails to make people aware of this (and its other) achievements in the EU.