Beginning of Essay
Spring 1999 was supposed to be the 's finest hour, as its Economic and Monetary Union finally got underway. Instead, the union was thrown into turmoil. After a scathing report suggesting corruption and mismanagement in the European Commission, all 20 commissioner ....

Middle of Essay
.... they could have vetoed any deal going against them. In typical EU fashion, the compromise budget is mixture of give and take, but there are some clear winners and losers. As the sun rose over Berlin, a compromise was finally foundMost consumers living in the European Union should be among the winners, as the price of many foods could fall in the coming years. Spain, Greece, Portugal and France did quite nicely, defending their share of EU subsidies. The big loser is Germany. The host government tried to get its EU payments reduced by 3bn euros, but for the talks to succeed the Germans had to settle for a cut of just 700m euros ....