No surprise that the talks to determine the EU budget are in another chaotic mess. Oh but completely inconsistent. The Frau faction wants to INCREASE the budget. However, quite a number of other leaders of member states do not. They would like to reduce it. And this does not go for David Cameron alone who would settle with a freeze.
Mario Monti has joined David Cameron’s ranks, saying perfectly logically that you cannot raise the EU budget while pressing countries to cut theirs so drastically. Quite so. And there is indeed scope for cutting back quite a lot. Why does the Euro Parliament have to convene in both Strasburg and Luxemburg (or is it Brussels?). Why do commission personnel have to have so many perks and such high salaries? Why is there such waste and overlapping in Commission operational costs all around?
Not to mention why do they have to hold so many Eurogroups and summits and meetings and what nots, with all their dinners and teas and breakfasts and all that. Particularly when hardly anything is ever agreed in these. Of late, everything is always postponed for the next meeting and then the next one after that. Hardly very efficient, nor, I would say, all that “competitive”, is it?
Mind you, the Commission employees have gone out on strike against cuts to their salaries. Quite understandable. No one enjoys salary cuts. No,
We could have a little more sympathy for them had they not whistled in the wind and looked right the other way when salaries, wages and pensions were (and are) being brutally slashed in countries like Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and perhaps worse of all Greece?
Solidarity matters. It is one of the virtues sorely lacking in the EU. At all levels.
Perhaps it is time to say goodbye?
The only way to go. Laughing!