madam president eu leaders are living in a bubble of illusion and self-delusion
the best example of that happened this morning
leaders of eu institutions were saying that the financial crisis is largely behind us
nothing could be further from the truth
as wolfgang münchau wrote yesterday in the financial times europe is facing a stark choice between default and bailout
both imply the absorption of a huge loss
the only difference between the two is how the loss gets distributed
in the case of a default german french british italian and spanish banks will suffer and the taxpayers of those countries will share the cost with greek irish and portuguese taxpayers
in the case of a bailout the total burden will be put on the back of greek irish and soon portuguese citizens
it is in this context that i say that the proposal to increase the budget of parliament by two point three is still too high and unacceptable
let us go back to the drawing board and reduce it to one as suggested by commissioner janusz lewandowski
to show an increase well below inflation would earn some badly needed legitimacy for parliament in the eyes of european citizens
not only the increase but also the structure can be modified
there are many ways to save money for the european taxpayer
as helga trüpel has already said we do not need to travel business class within the european union
an amendment jointly tabled by the greens the united left and the ecr proposes to reduce travel costs significantly by using flexible economy class tickets for flights under four hours in length
we do not need a shiny glitzy fleet of black mercedes-benz cars here in strasbourg
use the tram
we do not need the house of european history as europe is losing competitiveness and geopolitical weight
it will be a museum anyway
there is huge scope for savings on energy costs
our offices have no temperature control or individually adjustable heating and air conditioning
we waste a tremendous amount of energy every year
there is large scope for savings on security and it services
in both cases we need far better service for much less money
we should review and revise our health insurance costs as well
there is no need to have access to such an extraordinarily generous range of health care services
budgeting is about setting priorities both positive and negative
there is no shortage of positive ones but responsible and prudent budgeting requires both especially in times of crisis
