EU commission asks for €11bn to plug budget gap

An extra €11.2 billion is needed to cover unpaid bills from the EU budget, the European Commission said on Wednesday (March 27).

Budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said he tabled the amending budget in a bid to plug gaps in the 2012 and 2013 spending plans.

The request for cash "cannot come as a surprise," he said, adding that earlier postponement of payments had created a "snowballing effect of unpaid claims transferred onto the following year."

"The ostrich policy ca...