"The differences between the member countries are quite big but the meeting wasn't bad, there was no drama. It was agreed that we will meet next year, in January I suppose, and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy was tasked with continuing to work on the text of the conclusions and positions which are quite different," Milanovic said after the meeting.
Croatia, set to join the EU in July, has fared quite well in these talks, he said. "We have to pay more or less EUR 4 billion (into the EU budget) and then we have the chance to get 11.5 billion back. That's what we must ensure, we have to fight for it because it isn't given on a plate," he said, adding that the draft was still not adopted.
Van Rompuy included in the draft Croatia's request that it be given an additional year to realise projects to be financed with EU funds.
Milanovic said he saw no reason why everyone should not agree to the request "because we only want what all states had when they joined the EU."
He said the 2014-20 budget was the first seven-year budget lower than the previous one, which made negotiations much tougher. The countries that pay more into the budget than they get back say they are pushing for cost-cutting because they are reducing their national budgets.
"Those are two different things. The European budget is very small, about one per cent of GDP, so this is more about principles than money. In Croatia's interest, I will refrain from saying whether those principles are right, whether they are a little more or a little less selfish," Milanovic said, adding that European budgets need not be cut if national budgets were cut because they were not comparable.
A joint statement by the European leaders said the bilateral talks Van Rompuy held with them over the last two days were constructive and showed that an agreement could be reached early next year.