President Barack Obama hails US Senate healthcare vote

US President Barack Obama has hailed the Senate's healthcare vote as a "big victory for the American people".

Senators voted in the early hours of Monday to end debate on a compromise bill, putting the legislation on course to face a final vote on Christmas Eve.

President Obama has set health reform as a key plank of his first term.

The legislation, which aims to cover 31 million uninsured Americans, could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare in decades, if approved.

"The United States Senate knocked down a filibuster aimed at blocking a final vote on healthcare reform and scored a big victory for the American people," Mr Obama said.

Acrimonious debate

He said the Senate showed it could "stand up to the special interests" and move the nation closer to a health insurance overhaul for the country as a whole.

He said the bill would reduce the deficit in the long term, countering Republican criticism that the legislation is too expensive.

After a long, often acrimonious debate Senators voted 60 to 40 along party lines to end debate on the bill at 0100 (0600 GMT) on Monday.

Four further votes are scheduled this week on the issue before the final Senate vote on Christmas Eve.

Under the Senate bill, most Americans would have to have health insurance.

Private insurers would be banned from refusing to provide insurance because applicants had pre-existing medical conditions.

If passed, the Senate bill would have to be reconciled with a more expansive one passed last month by the House of Representatives.

Key differences in the House version include a government-run health insurance plan, or public option, and how to pay for the reform.

EU adopts bigger budget for 2010

The European Parliament has approved a 122.9bn euro (£110bn) EU budget for 2010 - nearly half of which is to go to agriculture and natural resources.

It is a 6% increase on the 2009 budget, which was worth 116bn euros.

Next year the EU is due to conduct a major review of the budget. The UK wants to see a cut in farm subsidies.

In 2010 an extra 2.4bn euros will go towards economic recovery projects, with the energy sector and broadband development the priorities.

It is part of an overall 5bn euros in extra economic recovery funding for 2009-2010.

In addition, 300m euros is going to help dairy farmers and 75m euros is for decommissioning Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear plant.

Support for farmers

The UK's net contribution to the EU budget will rise by almost 60% to 7.2bn euros (£6.4bn) next year, the UK Treasury has said, because of the costs of EU enlargement and a cut in the annual rebate to the UK.

The 2010 allocation for agriculture and natural resources is 58bn euros, compared to 52.5bn euros in 2009. Regional aid - known as "cohesion" funds - gets 36bn euros (35bn euros in 2009).

The 2010 budget amounts to 1.04% of the EU's gross national income (GNI).

It is the last year that the EU budget has been negotiated under Nice Treaty rules.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, which went into effect on 1 December, the European Parliament will have greater powers to influence the budget. All areas will be subject to parliament's "co-decision" with the EU governments.

For the first time MEPs will have the power to challenge farm spending figures. France and a number of East European countries are expected to resist any major reallocation of farm support.

New foreign service

But the budget for the planned EU diplomatic service - called the European External Action Service (EEAS) - has not yet been fixed.

That will be the job of the new EU foreign policy supremo, the UK's Baroness Ashton, provided MEPs confirm her as High Representative for Foreign Affairs in January.

In consultation with MEPs she will have to set the first budget for the EEAS, with a staff of up to 5,000. That is likely to happen in March-April 2010.

Under the economic recovery plan, EU funds will be spent on electricity links between the Republic of Ireland and Wales, offshore wind energy projects in the North Sea and carbon capture and storage projects in the UK, the parliament says on its website.

The chief negotiator on the budget, Hungarian MEP Laszlo Surjan, told the parliament that "we are enhancing energy security, supporting the creation of jobs".

He also said there was an urgent need for a proper review of the EU's long-term budget, saying "we haven't got enough room for manoeuvre - there are headings where there are no reserves".