Brussels bumps up the budget

As MEPs voted in Strasbourg this week to increase the 2010 EU budget, East of England Conservative MEPs Vicky Ford, Geoffrey Van Orden and Robert Sturdy made a stand, pointing out that this is not the time to be putting extra billions onto the EU's budget lines.

In the midst of a recession, as national governments take an axe to public spending to slash their deficits, MEPs have been amending their own budget so that even more British taxpayers' money will flow to Brussels.

Vicky Ford said,

"Many of the budget increases are for notably worthwhile causes on a European level, but are they really justifiable when valuable services are being cut back home as Gordon Brown tries to repair the economic mess he has got us into? It is time that Brussels faces reality: at a time of economic crisis we cannot heap extra burdens on national finances."

Geoffrey van Orden

"For a long time I have been pressing for cuts in the EU budget.  While the government is having to tighten its belt and cut costs in the face of recession, the EU goes on increasing expenditure. We will continue to fight overspending and waste in the European institutions."

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