The Netherlands has come under fire…

Date: 17/12/1998

...after warning this week that it would veto a huge slice of the planned funding for a multi-million-ecu EU millennium fund to boost European culture. The Dutch said they would only agree to a 90-million-ecu programme,half the 167-million-ecu figure agreed by EU culture ministers last year, until the current dispute over the country's net contributions to the Union's budget was solved. But the European Parliament attacked the Dutch stance. “Culture cannot remain hostage to simple accounting tactics,” said Greek singer-turned-MEP Nana Mouskouri.