Brace yourself, fading French President Jacques Chirac, but the countries you referred to in 2003 as “not very well behaved and rather reckless of the danger of aligning themselves too rapidly with the American position” are already starting to lecture Old Europe.

The four largest new members the European Union — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — have written a letter to current EU President Tony Blair of Great Britain:

“We expect that a new budget should strengthen economic growth and employment, boost competitiveness and support structural reforms in member countries,” the letter said.

“Without an agreement in December, the response to these challenges together with the ambition of new EU members to catch up would be delayed and confidence in the capability of the enlarged EU to find agreement might be seriously undermined.”

In other words: Get your act together, old Europe, if you want to be taken seriously by New Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany went even further on his own said that Old Europe’s proposal for a reduced budget was “unacceptable,” and that the newer States “are not going to pretend that they can afford to play this game.”

According to a Reuters report, France is blaming the British for refusing to give up its annual refund from Brussel’s, but the Chirac/de Villepin (poet) government has its own issues:

French European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna said the agreement on the 2007-2013 budget should not involve cuts in farm subsidies, of which France is a major beneficiary.

“The key to negotiations is not the common agricultural policy,” she told LCI television in an interview. “The key to negotiations is the British rebate.”

Blair meets with the governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — Baltic new members who side with the letter writers — in Tallinn on Thursday then begins to circulate proposals to other States on Monday.

Most observers do not expect a budget agreement by the end of the year.