Will common sense prevail ?

[youngmafbog]

what a surprise, those that dont pay for it want more spending - on themselves.

And what planet are the French on claiming without their farming budget they wont be able to feed their nation?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20459398

Personally I dont hold out any hope. Cameron is weak, as we know from previous exploits, so looks like we will all be coughing up hundreds more each to support this snouts in the trough club.

[Clanad]

It was your own "Iron Lady" that wisely stated "...Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them."

[dave50]

Yes, you will find any group who don't contribute always want more spending.

[jake-the-peg]

Those who don't contribute want more spending?

The two biggest contributers are France and Germany

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/63860000/gif/_63860166_eu_net464x648.gif

Germany's a bit luke warm but france is doing the pushing


Still Clanad - remind me how long the US Federal Government was paralysed by an inability to reach agreement on a budget?

All seems a bit familliar!

[emmie]

if he makes a better deal i would be surprised, and it would be the only thing he has done of late that made sense.

[VHG]

I saw on the news the other day the we make a 8 billion a year "LOSS" on our EU contributions. Poland make a 10 billion a year "profit".

No wonder poorer countries like Poland want to be in the EU.

But can anyone explain to me why we should give money to Poland (and others) to help them improve their motorway network, when all it does is allow them to bring their goods over to the UK quicker, putting our companies out of business.

I travel up the M40 from London to Birmingham on a regular basis, and the roads are full of lorries from Poland, Croatia, Latvia eetc all brining goods into the country.

Seems to me voting to stay in the EU is like Turkeys voting for Christmas, and we are the Turkeys.

[pdq1]

Its one thing Eton teaches them. Its manners! So don't expect Cameron to tell them to get lost.

[LazyGun]

I think it was Newsnight last night that listed the top 3 contributors to the EU budget as being Germany, Then the UK, then France.

And of course vested interests will squeal at the thought of subsidies being frozen or cut.The French government are just trying to do what every other member of the EU is trying to do- exert some public pressure to attempt to defend their share of the largesse.

It is also true that you can identify some EU projects where money has been spent that are absurd or luxury projects, which means that the scrutiny and commissioning panels need to get a grip.

Wasteful spending is also an issue. Not so much in the projects themselves, although there will be, through poor management, or incompetence or corruption - but in some of the fundamentals of the EU also. Each Euro MP gets allowances, rather than expenses - effectively an unscrutinised and generous subsidy to an already generous salary - and, if a senior employee of an EU institution, exempt from national tax rules (at least in some instances). Each Euro MP also has an extremely generous salary, and one imagines, equally generous provision for office rental, equipment, and aides.

Then there is the whole issue of the EU parliament upping sticks and moving lock stock and barrel every 6 months, shuffling between Strassbourg and Brussels, to say nothing of having 3 official languages with all the costs of translation, publication, archive and library costs etc.