By Martin Banks - 25th March 2010
Parliament's over-inflated bureaucracy needs to take a lead in this
Geoffrey Van Orden
MEPs have attacked plans by parliament to increase the institution's 2011 budget by 6.5 per cent.
Draft proposals would see parliament's budget rise to €1.7bnnext year, up by more than €100m from 2010.
This includes the cost of 177 new posts in the secretariat and €9.4m in salaries and allowances for 18 additional MEPs as foreseen under the Lisbon treaty.
The 2011 budget procedure is the first where parliament will decide jointly with member states on the whole budget.
If approved by the commission and member states, the planned rise breaks a 22-year-old pledge by parliament that the cost of the assembly would never add up to more than a fifth of the EU's total budget.
In a vote on Thursday, MEPs approved broad political guidelines for the 2011 EU budget which foresees a four per cent increase in the cost of the EU institutions to over €8.4bn.
Parliament's share of this is €1.7bn - mainly spent on buildings and staff.
A report by rapporteur Helga Trüpel, a German Green deputy, defends a review of the 20 per cent ceiling.
Next month, the commission will bring forward its proposals for the 2011 budget and, during a debate on the issue on Wednesday; some MEPs welcomed the suggested emphasis on youth policy.
But it was the prospect of a 6.5 per cent rise for parliament alone that sparked most debate.
UK Conservative MEP, Geoffrey Van Orden has led the call on behalf of the European Conservatives & Reformists group for parliament's bureaucracy "to set its house in order."
He said, "In times of economic stringency all of the EU's institutions should be redoubling their efforts to reduce costs and eliminate waste. Parliament's over-inflated bureaucracy needs to take a lead in this."
"There should be year on year efficiency savings and a reduction in the 6000 staff employed by parliament. Instead, numbers keep growing.
"Leaving aside the admission that the costs of the Lisbon treaty are unknown - yet another reason why we fought so hard against it - it is unacceptable for the parliament to take no action to cut unnecessary costs.
"What possible justification is there for parliament "information offices" in each of the 27 member countries, at a cost of over €40m a year, when already there are 736 MEPs across Europe to tell it how it is."
He added, "The creation of a house of European history at a cost of over €2m is an Orwellian construction merely to sell the EU project. Over €8m a year is being spent on Europarl TV, a station that nobody watches."
"Worst of all, the parliament as a whole has not backed the demand of Conservative MEPs and others that governments bite the bullet and scrap the costly and wasteful Strasbourg circus once and for all - that would save £180m a year, a lot of carbon footprint, and MEPs' stress levels."
Further comment came from UKIP deputy Marta Andreasen, who said, "The European institutions are preaching economy for all except themselves. In difficult financial times, European taxpayers are expected to dig even deeper to finance vanity projects, private cars and more junkets.
"How much more gravy does Europe want on the gravy train?"
Meanwhile, at its plenary session, parliament adopted its 2009 annual report on the eurozone and public finances.
Sophie Auconie, an EPP deputy, led calls for "better European economic coordination."
She said, "While the EU is going through the worst economic and social crisis since the beginning of European integration, sharing a steady common currency, combined with the flexibility and the independence of the monetary policy of the European Central Bank, have demonstrated their benefits."
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