Janusz Lewandowski, Commissioner responsible for Financial Programming and Budget, has recently sent a letter to all EU institutions asking them to cut their administrative budgets in 2012, in line with Member States austerity policies, which include cuts in administrative expenditure. He said that they “cannot ignore the broader economic and budgetary context.”
A European Parliament’s document “The responses to the discharge questionnaire 2009” provides a never-ending list of examples where taxpayers money has been wasted. It is not difficult, therefore, to find examples of administrative expenditure that should be cut or, in fact, scrapped.
However, it seems that the European Parliament is not planning to cut but to increase its budget. According to TheParliament.com Geoffrey Van Orden, MEP has criticized the bureau for intending to increase the European Parliament’s 2012 administrative budget to €1.7bn.
Geoffrey Van Orden said "Instead of finding ways of spending more money parliament should set an example and aim a 10 per cent reduction in its budget.” Moreover, according to Geoffrey Van Orden “the parliament plans to take on another 112 staff next year, as well as to reward a sixth of all current staff with a promotion and corresponding pay increase.”
He noted that “Some €34m is to be spent on renovating a building in Luxembourg used only by officials” and that "In 2012, parliament also intends to spend some €7m on 'raising public awareness of European issues in the run-up to the 2014 elections.”
