November 04, 2010

The EU Summit’s bid – “only” a 2.9% raise to the 2011 EU budget

 

 The EU Summit’s bid – “only” a 2.9% raise to the 2011 EU budget

 

UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron had to give in a little to the EU’s demands. At least eleven member states were a blocking minority against the EU Parliament’s demand of a 5.9% budget increase.

 

The Euro-MP Elmar Brok (German CDU) was on BBC last week and stated that the EU needs more money due to its increased competence. One could ask – are the member state competences decreasing? Should not they have the possibility to cut corresponding amounts in the budgets? Or does the EU now cover completely other political areas that must be covered by the taxpayers?

 

The EU Parliament’s president Jerzy Buzek attacked Cameron for being “anti-European.” On the other hand, Angela Merkel answered that recently she had to cut the German budget and that that did not make her “anti-German.”

 

 

Where is the EU budget spent?

 

To give an example, British media wrote about all the EU diplomats (European External Action Service, EEAS) that will be sent overseas. Barbados will have 46 EU diplomats posted there, Vietnam will have 57, Ukraine 95, and even the microstate Vanuatu will receive six EU diplomats. It will be interesting to see if member states, France for instance, will cut back their staff at their embassies around the world. Just the 150 new bombproof limousines for the EEAS ambassadors will cost around 33 million GBP.

 

Another idea, proposed by the EU Commission and that was recently approved in the EU Parliament Culture Committee, is the plan for a “European Heritage Label.” This program would have an annual budget of 783 000 GBP over six years. The motivation for the creation of this “European Heritage Label,” as in the Paliadeli report form the Culture Committee, is given as follows:

 

“The idea of a European Union Heritage Label that aims to increasing the European citizens’ sense of sharing a common heritage (through knowledge of history and participation in actions supporting intercultural dialogue) and envisioning the building of the EU as a still in-progress process is a step in this direction.”

 

The Commission and the Committee pity the bad turnout in the 2009 EU Parliament’s elections. They think that this program and its costs can get people to come out and vote in a larger extent in the EU Parliament’s elections. Who believes that? The fact is that the EU budget contains a lot of absurd expenses. A giant cut back could eliminate all of that rubbish. The member states’ citizens would not even notice that cutbacks have been made.

Jan A Johansson, edited by Mauricio Parra

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