Brussels

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states and the European parliament said on Tuesday that they have reached a deal on a new 2015 budget for the 28-country bloc after bridging gaps that threatened to scupper a deal.

The two had failed to reach an agreement in November as cost-conscious EU governments came under heavy domestic pressure to cut the size of a Brussels bureaucracy viewed as profligate. Complicating matters this year was an angry row over the recalculation of member state contributions to the EU budget that saw Britain tapped to pay an extra 2.1 billion euros (S$3.4 billion).