The final deadline of midnight on 15 November for agreeing the EU's annual budget for 2011 may have passed. No press release has appeared on the website of the European Parliament or the European Council to indicate otherwise. A Council press conference was due for 23.00 Brussels time - presumably to announce the budget if it were agreed but this has been "delayed".

Failure to agree would be very serious in terms of the ongoing financing of spending programmes and would undermine confidence. It would be the first time that an annual budget is vetoed since 1985. After 1 January, on a month by month basis money could be allocated subject to Council and European Parliament approval until and unless a definitive budget is re-proposed by the European Commission and accepted by the Council and the Parliament.