Progress in our fight to end the EP travelling circus
Posted, February 17, 2012 @ 15:00
A campaign by Conservative MEPs to end the costly travelling circus that sees the European Parliament switching sittings between Brussels and Strasbourg on a monthly basis has taken a major step forward.
In a debate on the guidelines for next year's budget, MEPs voted through a key British amendment which calls on the parliament's authorities to review their hugely wasteful two-seat policy. This means that the whole legislature, administrative team and thousands of support staff up sticks for a week each month and relocate from the Belgian capital to Strasbourg, nearly 300 miles away in France.
A fleet of 20 juggernauts carries tonnes of paperwork between the two parliament buildings and the entire rigmarole wastes €200m of taxpayers' money every year and creates 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
South East MEP Richard Ashworth, budget spokesman for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, told the debate: "National governments throughout Europe are striving to cut expenditure, to deliver better value for money and to keep budgets under tight control.
"Our job should be to do the same. We have here a real chance to show leadership
"We also have every right to demand that the other European Institutions also set an example for the rest of Europe.... we should be demanding real savings in their budgets and they need to be able to demonstrate value for money.
"But it is not possible to have this debate without discussing the two seat arrangement of this parliament
"It is indefensible for this house to go on promoting the need for cost saving, efficiency and competitiveness among the other institutions, among national governments and among the people of Europe ....while we continue such a wasteful practice ourselves.
He said the parliament would lose all credibility if it did not review the two-seat arrangement and told MEPs: "We must have that debate . We ought to have it NOW."
Mr Ashworth also urged the authorities to look more critically at the cost of their buildings investments and management and to drive progressive reduction of the EU's administration costs through economies of scale.
He insisted: "It is time we looked again at staff levels, staff regulation and staff pension policy to ensure that they are up-to-date, relevant and that they represent value to the European taxpayer."