Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Vicky Pryce: business correspondent on Europe's reaction to Trump easing Russian diesel import restrictions

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Vicky Pryce: business correspondent on Europe's reaction to Trump easing Russian diesel import restrictions · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Vicky Price is joining us now. Vicky, hello.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Hi, good morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The EU budget bust up. What's up?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's a real worry, actually, because, of course, there
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: is a little bit of time to negotiate the new
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: seven-year budget that's coming up. And it's quite important. I mean,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: we're talking about something like 1.8 trillion. So it's not
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: huge by comparison to the GDP of the EU, but
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: it's quite important because it's the one area where there
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: is you know, money which is being spent across the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: EU and in ways in which people have all agreed
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: this should be spent rather than individual governments sort of
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: making the decisions and being under some sort of supervision
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: by the authorities and the European Central Bank. So there
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: is a lot of that that goes on. But in addition,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: this budget is one which is supposed to be helping
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: various regions, helping some working together on research and development,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: on defence and things like that. But they don't all
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: agree on how big that should be because of course
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: each country contributes to it So though it's supposed to
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: be run from the center and then allocated across Everyone
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: contributes to it and there is a redistribution from the
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: rich countries to the poorer ones And there is always
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a fight as to how much of that they want
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to see happen And of course the the countries that
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: tend to receive more than pay want more of that
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: particularly in areas like agriculture and And others who are
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the sort of frugal countries, if we want to call
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: them that, like the Netherlands, for example, don't really want
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: to do that and let others sort of use their
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: own taxpayers' money for areas that they don't perhaps consider
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: to be so significant. So, compromises are coming, or at
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: least suggestions. The Irish have put a compromise through with
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: a small reduction, but actually keeping it more or less intact.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: That's been rejected by lots of other countries. And the
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: final thing about this is that it's not really meant
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: to be finalized until next year, but because there are
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: going to be quite a lot of elections in Europe
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: and possibly some more right-wing governments may be coming in.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: And this is, of course, the presidential election in France
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: is one that comes to mind. Everyone is trying to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: get it all organized and agreed by the end of
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: the year. But the way things are going, and before
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the elections, in other words, which might torpedo it, the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: way things are going, we may not get an agreement.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: No, well, everyone's in a cost of living crisis. Nobody's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: got any money. There's no such thing as free money.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: And if they're making big contributions, they'd like to cut it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And I found it interesting that you said that's a
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: small reduction by Ireland. It's still 400 billion, which is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: quite a lot, and a 2 trillion budget. But there
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: we go. Now, let's get to oil here because everyone's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: concerned about oil and there's concern in the EU because
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump eased some sanctions on Russian diesel exports. So
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: there's 11 happening there. How's Europe feeling?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, Europe in theory should be relieved that
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: perhaps some of the pressure on diesel in particular may
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: go because, of course, prices are rocket high right now
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and everyone is screaming and there are concerns that we
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: might adapt having rationing happening, particularly for sectors that rely
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: on diesel. But I think what they're worrying about is
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: two things. First of all, it's what the optics of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: it are indicating, which is Ukraine, which Europe supports, would
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: be the loser in this in many ways politically. And
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: the second thing is that actually the amounts that we're
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: talking about that Russia can actually export in terms of
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: sort of diesel products... are very small, so they're not
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: going to make any difference. So basically, when it's going
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: through all this political upheaval and concern about what it means,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and even here in the UK, Andy Burnham has said
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: how we are on the side of Ukraine, it could
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: split the EU from the US thinking and not actually
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: even achieve anything at all, except Russia looking politically more acceptable,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: if you like. And I think that's what they're worried about.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: It's more political than economic. But of course, they would
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: love to see some reduction in fuel costs.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't we all? And I thank you so much. This
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: is Vicky Price out of Europe News.