European Parliament
A7-0215/2012
Anneli Jäätteenmäki,
rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
(FI)
Madam President, the countries of the EU are making savings, and that is what the EU also has to do. Despite this, the Commission is proposing an increase of almost 7% in the EU budget.
In my country, Finland, an increase in the EU budget of this sort would either mean a cut in the national budget of EUR 70-100 million or more debt. That also happens to be precisely the same sum that the Finnish Government decided to cut from health care.
Today, however, I am speaking on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The European External Action Service is proposing an increase of 5.7%; the main reason for this is the fact that the security situation in Afghanistan and Iraq has become so much worse, and security costs money. At the same time, though, those involved in the EU’s external relations say that the situation in those areas has stabilised. We need to be consistent in what we say: the situation has either improved or it has not.
My message is that we have to make savings. Of course, we have to ensure that EU officials are safe, but the money has to be found elsewhere. The EU cannot keep proposing that more money should be spent on this and that. The time has come to make savings, especially if we are lecturing the Member States about saving money.

