00:02the fight over the european union's next seven-year budget has entered a critical new phase
00:08one that could make or break the deal in a striking coincidence the heated negotiations
00:13have overlapped with the effort to fill ukraine's 70 billion euros shortfall for 2027
00:19the bloc is expected to cover two-thirds of the request roughly 46 billion euros
00:25other allies such as the uk canada norway and japan should take up the rest technically the
00:32issues remain separate files but politically diplomats and officials say they are becoming
00:38rapidly intertwined the two are about the money and they both face a pressing deadline set by the
00:44french election marine le pen the candidate of the far-right national rally who is firmly ahead in
00:50polls has vowed to cap her country's contribution to the budget at 5 billion euros a year and warned
00:56sealing a deal before the election would be a democratic scandal le pen has also promised to
01:01halt all french support for ukraine next month a special eu summit which was originally planned
01:06to focus exclusively on the draft budget has been extended to two days to accommodate discussions on
01:12ukraine
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