EU president: leaders agree budget deal

After a marathon of all-night talks, EU leaders reached an agreement on the budget for 2014-2020. European Council president Herman van Rompuy announced the result on Twitter, the Czech news agency confirmed. The Czech Republic had threatened to veto the original proposal unless cuts were made. The EU’s cohesion fund policy was also crucial for Czech support, ČTK said: all regions in the country, with the exception of the capital, come in for funding. A total of 960 billion euros is to be divided among the member states – billions less than the original proposal by the EC. The budget must still be approved by the European Parliament; MEPs warned earlier that they were prepared to block an "austerity" budget.