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.