European Union leaders agreed on their first ever budget cut in the EU’s 56-year history last Friday.
Following two days of talks, a €908bn budget limit for 2014 - 2020 was agreed on, with cuts of €34.4m per year over the next seven years.
The budget required the backing of all 27 members and was negotiated during a marathon 25-hour discussion session in Brussels.
Following the discussions, news of the decision broke when president of the European council tweeted:
Deal done! #euco has agreed on #MFF for the rest of the decade. Worth waiting for.
— Herman Van Rompuy (@euHvR) February 8, 2013
Last November, EU leaders failed to agree a deal amid divisions over austerity measures and the accounts were qualified.
The sequence of qualifications goes back for nearly two decades, with one exception in 2008, when the EU succeeded in getting its accounts past the ECA for the first time in fourteen years.
However, UK prime minster David Cameron heralded the budget as good for the UK and for Europe, and said the cuts were something to be "proud" of.
The budget requires a final agreement with the European Parliament before it can come into force in January 2014 - something that has yet to be reached.