Read the text below which is entitled "A modest proposal"
in order to answer questions 24 to 26.
A modest proposal
Source: www.economist.com
14 Dec 2005 (Adapted)
What on earth is the European Union budget for? It
is too small (taking up just over 1% of EU-wide GDP) to
have any serious effect. To judge by the wrangling before
this week's EU summit in Brussels, it has become mostly
an opportunity for countries to air their pet grievances
and to demand their money back. If there is a deal on the
budget this week, it will be an agreement reached for its
own sake, because EU leaders cannot bear to be blamed
for yet another summit failure. And if there is no deal, it will
similarly be a disagreement for its own sake - because
France rather likes the idea of putting Britain, which holds
the rotating EU presidency, in the dock for one more
fi nancial fi asco.
Yet if there was ever a good moment to think hard
about how the budget might be better designed to
advance the Union's stated aims, it ought to be now. The
"fi nancial perspective" is negotiated once every six years.
That ought to create enough time to step back a bit and
consider some fi rst principles. The present negotiation
is also the fi rst since French and Dutch voters rejected
the EU constitution this summer, creating another good
opportunity to ask whether the club is still spending its
money on the right things. What would a budget look like if
it took the EU's goals at all seriously?
In paragraph 1, the author refers to "the wrangling before this week's EU summit", which denotes an atmosphere which is