1. Giscard d'Estaing, former President of the French Republic, concerning the Euro and the institutions. "It is necessary to have a stable President of the Euro zone. It is necessary to stop the rotation, choose the best and adopt a longer mandate, of at least two years. Then, it will be necessary to create a parliamentary committee for the Euro zone before which the President of the European Central Bank would come regularly present the aims of his monetary policy and submit it to the fire of questions. The press being present at these sessions, would be a true start. This committee could be formed, for example, of 120 members. 60 of them would be European parliamentarians, the other 60 from the national parliaments. Thus, we would have both a European and national perspective. Rather simple, in summary." (Unofficial translation of a declaration in the Belgian "La Libre Belgique" newspaper of 30 April").
2. European citizens, concerns EU spending. In the context of the last Eurobarometer (opinion poll on Europe), 30% of citizens questioned feel that the Union dedicates most of its budget to administrative spending, that is to say the running cost (civil servant wages, buildings, costs of representation and meetings, etc). The percentage of those who believe this exceeds 40% in Germany, Belgium and Denmark, and it is even above 50% in Finland and Sweden. In reality, the administrative spending does not exceed 5% of the Community budget, the most of it being dedicated to operational spending (agriculture, regional policy, aid to third countries, research, etc.). Only 14% of those questioned know that the largest source of spending is agriculture (44% in total) followed by regional aid and other structural actions. It is not surprising, under these conditions, that Europeans feel that the EU is not spending its money properly…