In the end, it was the EU’s eastern flank—the supposedly money-hungry and immature democracies—that called most loudly for a compromise in the name of salvaging political integration, while most of the old European democracies ruthlessly fought for their own “national interests.” In view of some big countries’ intense national egoism, the failure to agree on the EU’s 2007-2013 budget could have ominous political consequences for Europe.
结果，却是欧盟的东部——人们预料中亟需钱财的不成熟民主国家——以拯救政治一体化之名大声呼吁峰会的和解，而大部分老欧洲民主国家却在为他们自己的“国家利益”激烈争斗。由于某些大国强烈的国家利己主义，欧盟2007-2014年财政预算的谈崩将给欧洲带来不利的后果。