Geoffrey continues the fight against increases in the EU Budget
After negotiations with the EU Council (where governments sit), the European Parliament seems reluctantly to have accepted a 2012 Budget with an increase below 2% - effectively less than 2011 in real terms. But local Conservative MEPs argue that this was not enough and there should have been major cuts in EU expenditure.
Speaking in the Parliament in Brussels today (1 December), Geoffrey commented:
"What an opportunity has been missed for the Parliament to show that it is in the real world and getting to grips with economic reality.
"Across Europe, governments are cutting their budgets in order to deal with massive deficits while desperately trying to stimulate growth. This budget should have seen major substantive cuts on the budget with funds returned to the treasuries of our countries. All the EU's efforts should be focused on economic growth, competiveness, and research and development projects. But instead, the EU just accrues more and more areas of competence where, frankly it has no business. There are whole swathes of activity that could be cut.
"We could have set an example with the Parliament's own budget - admittedly only a small part of the overall budget but significant, costing some £1.5 billion a year. Some token steps have been taken but a recent study by the think-tank New Direction has identified some £350 million of potential cuts that could be made without even affecting the day to day work of the Parliament.
"The driving force in costs is not the MEPs - it is the massive inflation in size of the Parliament’s bureaucracy – now over 6,000 officials – and extravagant vanity projects like the so-called ‘House of European History'.
"The EU should focus on a few core economic tasks and must end its culture of excess."
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