Estimates of revenue and expenditure for 2013 - Section I - Parliament

I have listened carefully to the comments of Members this evening and, in the context of real cuts in real front-line services back in our Member States, in health, education and other areas, I cannot believe that Members think it is enough just to talk about freezing this budget in real terms.A freeze – a total freeze – would be a step in the right direction. I completely agree that Members must have the right to speak and listen in their own languages but I have also seen many Members fail to turn up for meetings where they have asked for interpretation, and that does not seem responsible. But more fundamentally we need to consider in the future how we run this Parliament and especially the costs of our monthly commute to Strasbourg because in order to have our citizens' satisfaction in our work we need to look again at the costs that they are bearing in the wider economy.

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