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Maybe by threatening such things they might actually do something abut their internal corruption but I seriously doubt it, there is no serious interest in reforming the Instituitiuons of Europe by those benefiting directly from .
As a net contributor to the EU we continue the cycle of corruption by being part of it - reducing our rebate just makes the problem worse. Again it was noticable that the Eurocrats would not consider reducing the admin of the EU whilst cutting aid budgets - have to consdier their priorities I guess and thats putting champagne on their tables....

 Mr Morden wrote:
Maybe by threatening such things they might actually do something abut their internal corruption but I seriously doubt it, there is no serious interest in reforming the Instituitiuons of Europe by those benefiting directly from .

There is a lot of clamour for reform in Europe. Plenty of people want to make it more efficient. But they are opposed by Europhobes who want the EU to be as innificiant as possible so that people oppose it.

As a net contributor to the EU we continue the cycle of corruption by being part of it - reducing our rebate just makes the problem worse. Again it was noticable that the Eurocrats would not consider reducing the admin of the EU whilst cutting aid budgets - have to consdier their priorities I guess and thats putting champagne on their tables....

Because the EU is growing. It contains half a billion people and a fifth of the world's GDP. Believe it or not, there's actually quite a bit of money around. Certainly enough to strengthen the EU, maybe in the process prevent a repeat of the sovreign debt crisis of Southern Europe.

And if you use the word "Eurocrat" again I will ignore your post.

I can't see how having two parliment buldings in different countries is in any way efficient and thats just the most obvious example of wastage. No one who is a "Europhobe" is opposing that waste be culled? Can anyone actually logically defend this?So who is apart from the French self interest and those who directly benefit from it??

There might be "plenty of money" floating around - but its going (as usual) to the wrong people and places. If the European Parliment is scared to even publish its own report on waste and corruption and it has to be leaked - what does that say about the institution as a whole?

As I said the negotiations and clamour from those within the Euproean poltical power structure seemed to be exclusively aimed at continuing to line their own pockets and ensuring that their standard of living via the grossly inflated admin budget was maintained at the expense of more worthy spending on infrastructure and aid.

To those who are unhappy with the EU: did you vote in the 2009 MEP elections? With turnout at an abysmal 43% (average), I'm guessing probably not.

The function of the European Parliament is to propose and scrutinise legislation, whilst representing the electorate's views (i.e NOT each member state'selected government). They even approve the European Council's choice of President, which is based of EP political trends.
With every treaty ammendment their powers have grown, precisely to address the democratic defecit that existed in the 1980s, and which many still believe exists.

If you really dislike the way the EU is run, then vote for change. Either in the MEP elections, or by using the European Citizen's Initiative. Taking your ball home because the game isn't going in your favour isn't the right approach.

quite a few posters were to young, I know I was.

I voted - nothing substantial seems to have changed.

 Mr Morden wrote:
I can't see how having two parliment buldings in different countries is in any way efficient and thats just the most obvious example of wastage. No one who is a "Europhobe" is opposing that waste be culled? Can anyone actually logically defend this?So who is apart from the French self interest and those who directly benefit from it?

France is a net give to the EU, not a net taker.

And there have always been different levels of government. The EU government is tiny compared to national governments.

 Mr Morden wrote:

There might be "plenty of money" floating around - but its going (as usual) to the wrong people and places.

As I said above, how would *you* prefer the money is spent? Do you even know how it's spent?

 Mr Morden wrote:

If the European Parliment is scared to even publish its own report on waste and corruption and it has to be leaked - what does that say about the institution as a whole?

That they're not as good at public relations as our own government. Wastage in the EU does exist but it's a fraction of the total, like it is everywhere. Just because a number is big, doesn't prove anything. What percentage of the total is it? How does it compare to comparable institutions.

 Mr Morden wrote:

As I said the negotiations and clamour from those within the Euproean poltical power structure seemed to be exclusively aimed at continuing to line their own pockets

Source on this? Not a source that says that EU officials are paid a salary, a source that says the increased expenditure is going exclusively on salaries.

 Mr Morden wrote:

and ensuring that their standard of living via the grossly inflated admin budget was maintained at the expense of more worthy spending on infrastructure and aid.

The EU spends 6.5% of its budget on admin. Given they had to administrate an area the size of Europe that's not bad. You know how much it costs to have legal documents translated into 30 languages? At a constant rate?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 CadianXV wrote:

If you really dislike the way the EU is run, then vote for change. Either in the MEP elections, or by using the European Citizen's Initiative. Taking your ball home because the game isn't going in your favour isn't the right approach.

Anti-EU parties are opposed to reforming the EU. Whenever the EU tries to increase its own efficiency they vote against it. Hence the insanity of the government's position.