David Cameron goes on attack with EU cuts wishlist DAVID Cameron took European leaders by surprise as he arrived in Brussels on Thursday night with a list of demands for cuts of billions of pounds in the 2014 EU budget. The Prime Minister was facing an uphill task as he entered the negotiations on the EU's next budget, demanding a £200 billion cut to the £973bn proposal on the table. But ahead of a crucial budget summit he confronted president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, with a paper setting out how Brussels could slash at least €6 billion - £4.8bn - off its staff costs at a stroke by upping retirement ages, lowering pensions and trimming lavish salaries. The Cameron list caught the pair by surprise when the Prime Minister was the first through the door for private talks before the showdown summit began. The start of the meeting was delayed until mid-evening as the rest of the EU's leaders held their own "confessionals" throughout the day, setting out their positions on how much cash the EU should be given to pay for policies between 2014 and 2020. Mr Cameron's position was clear: impose a real-terms freeze in spending in common with national public-sector cuts, including a solidarity gesture by targeting the €60bn-a-year (£48bn) administrative budget which pays the 40,000-plus staff of the civil service behind the Commission, Council and European Parliament. The Prime Minister warned at the last EU summit he was on the warpath over planned budget increases, pointing out that 16 per cent of European Commission staff were now earning over €100,000 a year. He insisted they should face the same kind of crackdown on central administration costs as in Whitehall. The attack followed a letter to EU chiefs from Mr Cameron and six other EU leaders, pointing out that national public sectors across Europe had already carried out job cuts and pay freezes. It warned: "The staff of the European institutions should share the burden." Mr Cameron's list of suggestions also included increasing the retirement age for eurocrats from 63 to 68 for staff currently under 58 years old, saving €1.5bn over the seven years of the proposed budget; and cutting 10 per cent from the pay bill, saving €3bn. He also wanted to cut eurocrat pensions, currently capped at a maximum of 70 per cent of final salary, to 60 per cent, saving €1.5bn. Mr Van Rompuy and Mr Barroso both reportedly insisted that it was very difficult simply to take the axe to the eurocrat pay and perks regime. But a UK government spokesman said: "These are not dramatic changes. The Commission (and other institutions) are telling the Greeks, Italians and others that they should put the retirement age up to 68. In the UK, we have cut pensions to career-salary average. As Mr Cameron entered the talks in Brussels, he warned the other 26 heads of government that he was willing to use the UK's veto if he did not get concessions on the budget and would also not accept any reduction in the UK rebate won by Margaret Thatcher.