madam president it is unbelievable that in these times of financial and economic crisis the european commission proposes an increase of almost five for the twenty ten budget
but what is worse is that while the council at its first reading in july put forward a reduction of almost two on the preliminary draft budget this parliament is now proposing an increase of five on it
the twenty ten budget would then end up being over eur one hundred and twenty-seven billion in payment appropriations which equates to one point zero eight of the eu's gross national income
is this the way this parliament wants to bring the budget closer to the citizens
it is all very nice to want to subsidise the special olympics in poland and greece and the european youth olympic winter festival in the czech republic or even xacobeo twenty ten but our constituents have other priorities in their lives such as paying their mortgages and giving a reasonable education to their children
the daily cost of the european union for the united kingdom currently amounts to gbp forty-five million per day and the proposed increase will bring it to gbp fifty million or more with the reduction of the rebate
believe me there are many other priorities in the uk to invest this money in and now that the european commission has warned that britain is in danger of going bust due to its high level of national debt this country would be happy to have a significant reduction in its eu contributions and i am sure that other countries would also be happy with a similar reduction
year after year the court of auditors has been unable to give us satisfaction that the eu budget has been legally and regularly spent and i was really concerned at the lack of control over taxpayers money when i was the chief accountant of the european commission back in two thousand and two
but still parliament wants to put more money into the eu coffers
do not count on me ever to vote in favour of any increase in the budget
if you want to subsidise projects to fight the crisis you should find areas where the budget can be reduced
