Conservatives try to save taxpayers millions by cutting wine subsidies
Posted, October 24, 2007 @ 17:00
Conservatives in the European Parliament want to call time on EU wine production subsidies, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.
The EU Budget 2008, which will be voted on in the European Parliament in Strasbourg tomorrow (Thursday), has almost 350 million euros (£240 million) earmarked for the subsidies.
Currently, the EU spends hundreds of millions of euros each year on measures to store and distil wine surpluses. But in an amendment to the budget, Conservative MEPs are calling for these subsidies to stop, saving the EU 348,500,000 euros over the next financial year.
Budgets spokesman for the Conservatives in the European Parliament Richard Ashworth MEP said: "Subsidising wine production in the European Union represents very poor value for money for EU citizens.
Europe needs to make less and better wine rather than European taxpayers having to pay up to buy the surplus low quality wine produced."