The special EU summit in Brussels ended without an agreement on a seven-year budget. The UK balked at making steep contributions, while France championed the cause of countries that would benefit from a big budget.

Now the coming year will bring new efforts. EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy tried to put a positive spin on the negative outcome, saying the discussions "show a sufficient degree of potential convergence to make an agreement possible in the beginning of next year." Van Rompuy spent two days trying to mediate, sometimes in one-on-one meetings with leaders, and sometimes in full sessions. The efforts were ultimately in vain. Van Rompuy's last suggestion provided for a budget of about 1 trillion euros ($1.29 trillion), about 100 billion euros less than the commission's original proposal. But the savings were not enough for some of the contributors - namely, the countries paying more into the EU budget than they get out of it.