Brussels, 26/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Last Thursday, the French minister for European affairs, Laurent Wauquiez, said that the request made on Wednesday by the European Commission to increase the EU budget in 2012 by almost 5% was “unacceptable” because it was excessive in a period of austerity. France has joined other countries that have already expressed their dissatisfaction with this rise. The French minister subsequently declared that, “all European countries are making efforts to control their budgets in a way that has never been previously demanded. We do not understand how the European Commission is not following this logic. Subsequently, this budget is unacceptable”.
The minister was speaking in the context of a meeting on developing approximately 10 different French and Luxembourg cross-border projects. In a press conference at Niederanven in the outskirts of Luxembourg he said that an increase in the European Union budget next year should be he same as the 2011 rate and no higher. The minister added that this rate already stood at 2.91%. He also said that, “we need to think about how to spend better and not always try to spend more on public policies… everyone has to make an effort and we have to look at the effectiveness of European intervention”.
On Wednesday, the European Commission requested a 4.9% increase on the Union's 2012 budget - €6.2 billion extra on the 2011 amount. This has already been refused by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which said that austerity also had to apply to the European public authorities. (L.C.trans/fl)