Brussels demands a 7 percent increase for their budget while jamming austerity upon Greece , Portugal , Spain , Italy - even France and the UK are cutting their budgets. So , why don't the so called sovereign states tell Brussels to take a hike ? And if they don't like it , Brussels can send their Army to collect from the sovereigns who tell them to piss off !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135040/Brussels-demands-7-budget-increase-PM-anger-cost-extra-1bn.html

Brussels demands 7% budget increase: PM anger at move that would cost us an extra £1bn

• Proposal would boost Britain's contribution to £114bn
• Downing Street and Treasury vow to fight demands

By LEON WATSON

PUBLISHED: 11:04 EST, 25 April 2012 | UPDATED: 17:32 EST, 25 April 2012

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EU demands for an inflation-busting 7 per cent budget increase have been met with outrage by politicians.

Britain would have to shell out an extra £1billion under the European Commission’s proposals for a massive spending boost.

Downing Street and the Treasury vowed to fight the demands, saying they were unrealistic.

The Commission’s proposal would increase the EU’s budget by 6.8 per cent to nearly £114billion. Britain’s share, at around 12.5 per cent, would be £16.6billion – a rise of more than £1billion.

Polish European Commissioner for budget and financial programming, Janusz Lewandowski presenting the European Draft Budget 2013 at the EU commission headquarters in Brussels today

EU officials argued that the extra money was needed to pay bills for projects already signed off by member states.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the budget rise was not ‘money for Brussels’ but would be ploughed back for the ‘benefit’ of EU citizens, including Britons.

EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski described it as an ‘anti-crisis package’.

He said: ‘We will not restore growth by cuts only; Europe needs to invest wisely for its own future, starting today.

That is what the EU budget is for, that is what our draft budget for 2013 is about.'

The Commission’s proposals come at a time when member states across the bloc are trying to save their faltering single currency by imposing swingeing cuts.

David Cameron made clear he would not entertain backing such a huge spending rise.

His official spokesman said: ‘Clearly that kind of increase, an increase that is in excess of inflation, is unacceptable when governments across Europe are having to make very difficult decisions on public spending

Members of the European Parliament give their reaction to the Draft EU 2013 Budget

Brussels has called for a 7 per cent budget rise. Pictured here is the European Parliament

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‘We will be talking to other countries and pushing for a much more realistic budget that recognises the economic situation in Europe.

Last year, we worked with other countries to bring down the proposals for a large increase in the budget and we will be doing the same this year.

Financial secretary to the Treasury Mark Hoban said: ‘It is unacceptable for the Commission to propose an inflation-busting budget increase when governments across Europe are making difficult decisions on public spending.’

A Treasury source added: ‘The Commission has wilfully ignored repeated calls for budgetary restraint.

This is despite failing to get its own house in order by cutting administrative costs or curb chronic high spending.’

UK government departments are on average facing budget cuts of 19 per cent.

Director of the Open Europe think-tank, Mats Persson, said: ‘Taxpayers around Europe will rightly wonder how in the world the same Commission that orders countries to cut hard and deep in public spending, has the nerve to propose a near 7 per cent increase for itself.

‘The fact that this comes in a week when we have seen a national government (Holland) collapse under the weight of EU-mandated austerity targets is just surreal.’ 

Marta Andreasen, a former EU chief accountant and now a UKIP MEP, urged the UK government to cut contributions to the EU. She said the EU demands were ‘selfish, unrealistic and insulting to taxpayers already under the cosh’.

‘This demand is cloud-cuckoo land stuff. Have the European Commission finally completely lost their grip on reality?’

Richard Ashworth, leader of the UK’s Conservative MEPs, said the proposed increase was ‘outlandish’.

Talks on next year’s budget are likely to take until December and will run alongside even more robust battles over the EU’s next long-term budget, for 2014-2020.

The commission has proposed an allocation of almost 1 trillion euros for its next seven-year budget.

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