The race towards the EU negotiations is becoming ever tighter and optimistic prognoses that this can be agreed are looking unrealistic. The parliamentary rapporteur on the budget, Ivailo Kalfin, a Bulgarian MEP, gave an interview to Euractiv and set out his stall on why it was unlikely that a deal could be achieved.
Surprising to a British reader is his main focus: not the British veto (which is sidelined to a prompted paragraph), but the inability of the European Council to set aside sufficient funds for long term projects. Our own political show is relegated to a muffled obstacle: an annoyance but irrelevant to proper reform. After all, some want us to leave and some see "strolling to the exit"