mr president i am obviously pleased that parliament has finally come to its senses accepted what to many of us was inevitable all along and settled for a two point nine increase although i have to say for many of us that does not go far enough
many of us would have liked to have seen a freeze or perhaps in our wildest optimism a reduction in the eu budget because the less money that the eu spends the less it interferes in the lives of ordinary citizens
this is obviously a good result for david cameron for mark rutte but it is also a victory for the hard-pressed taxpayers of europe who have to pay all the bills of the eu institutions
at a time of austerity at a time of cutbacks in most member states it was frankly madness for this parliament to be trying to increase eu spending by six
i am pleased that there has been at least some modicum of common sense
to those who believe in the european project and who believe in european integration and i am not particularly one of them you did your cause more damage than anybody else could have done by trying to insist on this ridiculous increase in eu spending when everybody else every other public institution in europe is seeing the pain of cutbacks
you have damaged your cause immeasurably
