However, critics pointed out that the Prime Minister had, given the straitened times, initially demanded a freeze or even a cut in the European Union’s annual budget and that a 2.9% rise still meant Britain would be forking out an extra £453 million a year to Brussels.
Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, branded Mr Cameron’s “grandstanding” a “complete failure”, saying: “European governments decided on 2.9% in August, so he has achieved absolutely nothing. He’s tried to swing his handbag but simply ended up clobbering himself in the face.”
Eurosceptic Conservative MEP Roger Helmer accused the PM of “rolling over” and said the outcome had been “no great achievement”.
In contrast, he won praise from Open Europe, which campaigns for EU reform.
It said: “David Cameron should be given credit for rallying an alliance against the European Parliament’s ludicrous demand for a 6% increase in the 2011 budget. He worked hard and it paid off.”
After being accused by Lord Tebbit, the former Conservative Party chairman, of performing a “Vichy-style” betrayal by agreeing to any increase, Mr Cameron told a press conference that by putting the 2011 EU budget on the summit agenda he had reined in Brussels’ excesses.
Declaring the 6% increase proposal “dead”, the PM declared: “The 2011 budget was not on the agenda for this Council. We put it on the agenda. We persuaded other countries to reject that 6% increase. Britain has made a real difference.”
He went on: “At a time when we are making painful decisions at home to put our economy back on track, I will not allow Brussels to derail us.”
Mr Cameron confidently claimed the alliance of 13 European countries, including France and Germany, would be enough to block other EU leaders negotiating a bigger rise in forthcoming talks with the European Commission and European Parliament before the next summit in December.
“This would not have happened without British action,” insisted the Prime Minister. “We have succeeded quite spectacularly. We put together a big alliance to stop that juggernaut of 6% in its tracks.”
In a separate development, the EU set in motion plans to amend its main treaty to create a permanent system to fight financial crises, and said a summit deal on new budget rules would strengthen the euro.
