MEPs have voted to increase their budget by 4.2 per cent compared to last year, to €132.7 billion (£116 billion). That is what the European Commission originally proposed – before it was cut back to €129 billion by member states in July.

A spokesman for the British Government said, “In such challenging economic conditions, high growth in EU spending is both unaffordable and out of kilter with the tough measures that many countries are taking to consolidate public finances.” Nice words, but it is vital they don’t acquiesce to increases in the budget again when it is discussed by MEPs and EU ministers later this year.

The European Union’s bloated bureaucracy will be a big winner – in particular, its diplomatic service. Earlier this year, Foreign Secretary William Hague had to warn against a power grab by the European external action service, which might try to “usurp the functions and powers of national foreign ministries”. A report by Dr Lee Rotherham for the TPA in September 2009 warned that this was already happening. Baroness Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has been working hard to expand her budget and powers.

Last month I wrote about how EU officials have refused a minor change in their working hours which would have saved £870 million. MEP Lajos Borokos summed up what many taxpayers would have felt on hearing the news: “The European Parliament is once again showing itself to be out of touch with the real world”.  Sadly, at a time when ordinary taxpayers face tax rises and inflation, and EU member states are making difficult budget decisions themselves, this vote for a budget increase only goes to confirm Mr Borokos’ point.

It may well have escaped your notice – probably because you have better things to do than to be looking for things to do in Brussels – but as of this week the Belgian capital has become home to a new “tourist attraction”.

On Friday the so-called Parliamentarium is opening – a brand new European Parliament visitor centre which has been paid for by the hard-pressed taxpayer at a cost of £15.5 million – nearly £5 million over budget and opening three years later than originally planned.

The official blurb about the exhibition – which aims to present the history of the EU to its citizens – could not make it sound more ludicrous:

“A highly varied presentation spread out over three floors holds the visitor’s attention. It consists of carefully harmonised narrative spaces, which lend three-dimensional expression to the contents of the exhibition… The Parliamentarium conveys the motto of the European Union, “United in Diversity”, in an emotional manner.”

And be in no doubt, it is propaganda central. The room entitled “United in Diversity” features “a walk-on map spread out over the floor, showing a Europe without borders” and enables visitors to “interactively acquire information on events that caused the European Parliament to draw up regulations that are valid and applicable throughout Europe”.

It includes a “light installation” entitled “Sky of Opinions”, while a special effort has been made to indoctrinate children of the need for the European Union to exist, with a mock-up of the Parliament chamber. Again, according to the official blurb, this will enable them to “learn what it means to actively participate in the idea of a united Europe”.

Some have dubbed it the EU’s very own theme park; I’m not sure about that, but it certainly seems like we’re being taken for a ride…

The European Commission has threatened to take legal action against the British Government over the rights of foreigners to claim benefits in Britain. British nationals are automatically considered to have the ‘right to reside’ but people of other EU nationalities are subject to an assessment first.

Discriminatory, says the Commission, which has given Britain a two month deadline to allow foreigners easier access to welfare in Britain, warning:

“Otherwise, the commission may decide to refer the UK to the EU’s Court of Justice.”

Changing the law to meet the demands could cost British taxpayers £2 billion a year as thousands of jobless EU nationals arrive with immediate eligibility for means-tested, residence-based benefits. The Commission is attacking not only the right of every member state to decide who is eligible for its benefits and why, but also the foundations of current welfare reform plans. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, spoke out against the move:

“This threatens to break the vital link which should exist between taxpayers and their own government. I sense this is part of a wider movement, coming in the same week as the proposals for a financial transactions tax across Europe which threatens to punish UK banks by decreasing their competitiveness abroad.”

Duncan Smith is rightly outraged at a ‘rising tide of judgements’ from European institutions, but taxpayers should be equally furious that a useful policy for preventing fraudulent use of our benefits system is being attacked by the unelected and the unaccountable. If Britain gives in to Brussels’ sabre-rattling the link between contribution and eligibility will be effectively destroyed.

The Government should simply ignore the warning and, if it becomes necessary, challenge the Commission in the EU Court of Justice. If the Commission wins, the Government should consider whether that decision might provide the circumstances for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.

The European Commission has asked its staff to work an extra half hour each day in order to save €1 billion – around £870 million – by 2020, but trade unions representing the EU’s 55,000 staff have not accepted this minor change. Extravagant salaries, generous holiday, gold plated pensions and free lunches; it’s a tough life, working for the European Union.

With the crisis in the eurozone, and the situation in Greece only likely to get worse, this is another slap in the face for hard-pressed taxpayers. The extra 30 minutes per day would increase their working week to 40 hours – still below the average British full time worker’s 41.5 hours. Even so, there is talk that EU workers could strike.

A letter from Equipe d’Union Syndicale, the European Parliament’s trade union, has rejected the idea. They complain that “the attractiveness of the European civil service would deteriorate”. Further proof that they don’t realise the EU gravy train needs to stop.

It is said often enough, but this is yet another example of civil servants in Brussels living in an entirely different world to the rest of us. They don’t understand that ordinary taxpayers simply cannot afford to continue funding cushy working practices they don’t enjoy themselves.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has agreed to an EU directive forcing agency workers into the same terms and conditions as directly employed staff. Legislation will mean agency workers will effectively be treated as permanent staff after just 12 weeks in an agency role. The new law will mean firms will think twice about hiring an agency worker and the Government’s own analysis predicts the legislation will cost British business £1.8 billion annually.

Businesses will be able to pass on some of the new costs the legislation imposes onto agency employees in the form of less generous basic pay. But it is likely that many agency workers will not accept sufficiently lower pay rates in exchange for the new ‘rights’ the government and the EU have decided must form part of their employment agreements. So executives will face tough decisions about whether to hire agency workers or simply abandon their projects. And some agency workers might decide that jobs with lower pay but enhanced statutory rights just aren’t worth as much to them and not take on the assignments.

Vince Cable: not serious about growth

At this stage in the economic cycle, casual and agency staff are particularly important. Companies are especially nervous about making potentially costly decisions so the option to take on agency staff on a more flexible basis that regular employees allows them greater confidence to create jobs and prosperity. Slamming this door to prosperity shut would never make sense but to do so in the current economic climate means it’s even worse. It means higher unemployment, slower growth and a weaker economy. Just what we don’t need right now.

What we do need is less regulation and fewer restrictions on enterprise, and lower and simpler taxes. The Coalition Government claims to have a growth agenda. If it was serious about growth and getting the economy back on track, it’d ensure the legislation was stopped before it was implemented. Until they do so, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that they’re just not serious.

As Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy this week put forward another set of proposals aimed at trying to rescue the Eurozone from its crisis, the European Union and its peoples are getting ever nearer to a crossroads where fundamental decisions will have to be taken about its future.

The German Chancellor and French President have resurrected the idea of an EU-wide financial transactions tax – which would massively hit the UK due to the sheer volume of such transactions done in the City of London.

Matthew Sinclair set out the case against the so-called Tobin tax (named after the economist who initially proposed it) just last year.

Treasury sources are indicating they would oppose such a plan (see today’s Times £) on the basis that unless it applied globally, the transactions would end up being done elsewhere and we would lose out big time.

It goes without saying that it is absolutely essential that we hold David Cameron, George Osborne et al to vetoing any such tax.

What George Osborne had suggested earlier this month (in this Telegraph article) but which was rejected by Merkozy (as City AM’s Allister Heath has called the Franco-German duo) was for the Eurozone to issue euro bonds allowing for its strongest economies to underwrite the debts of its weakest members.

Such a measure would require a new EU Treaty – unanimously agreed by all 27 member states, of course. And if such a Treaty were agreed, then it would be the first time that the Coalition Government’s EU referendum lock would be tested – the recently passed measure that states that any further transfer of powers to the EU should be subject to a vote of the British people.

Whatever ends up being proposed in the coming weeks and months, the fact that the consent of the people of most European countries has not been sought as the juggernaut of EU integration has ploughed on regardless makes the status quo unsustainable for very much longer.

The current discussions about moving towards “true economic  governance” for the Eurozone within the European Union certainly seem an obvious juncture for all EU member states to assess their role in the club going forwards.

Moreover, here in the UK a consultation with the British public over Britain’s relationship with the EU through a referendum is long overdue.

And I can only see the clamour for such a vote growing as our continental cousins continue to propose measures that would clobber Britain whilst the Brussels bureaucrats ignore calls for austerity and insist that they need bigger and bigger budgets.

On the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) website, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is hailed as being “focused on reducing economic disparities within and between member states by supporting economic regeneration and safeguarding jobs.” Sounds grand, but the reality is another example of taxpayers’ money being collected by an unaccountable European power then re-distributed to a narrow elite of chosen institutions and causes.

It emerged earlier this week that the fund hasn’t just been dishing out grants, but slapping fines on our institutions too. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DCLG, Bob Neill, replied to a question posed by Burton’s Member of Parliament, Andrew Griffiths, regarding how much money has been paid back by British organisations to the European Union as a result of breaches to the fund’s rules. Griffiths specifically referred to infringements relating to the publicity of the fund on the part of the organisations that received the financial support. Neill’s answer was nothing less than startling.

He revealed that in excess of £436,000 has been paid back to the EU by thirteen different organisations; Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce being the worst hit. The latter organised an event without suitable acknowledgement of the ERDF contibution; a flat rate penalty of 10 per cent was imposed and £77,609 repaid. The former, thankfully soon to be wound up, received a £201,801 bill for not using the EU logo on area publicity material in an attempt to simplify its brand image.

You will comply

Most recently, the University of Northampton was fined £56,477 by penny-pinching bureaucrats after it failed to display the European Union logo outside a building whose facilities had been part-funded by the ERDF. Michael Ellis, Conservative MP for Northampton North, criticised the fine as “astronomical” and demanded the EU return the cash:

“It’s outrageous. These European dictocrats shouldn’t be worrying about their egos or wasting taxpayer’s money on investigating these matters. This is British taxpayer’s money being wasted on absurd self-publicity. There’s not an ounce of common sense being used here.”

These fines ultimately come out of the pockets of British taxpayers; we’re being stung once for contributions to the EU, which are then handed to the ERDF before being handed back to us, and then again when we’re fined for not following their petty rules. Outrageous. Why does the European Union insist so vigorously on promoting itself and its brand? Why must individual member states be forced to assume an additional financial burden to the already monumental sums they already contribute annually for Union membership?

In Neill’s answer, the full version of which can be found here, he said:

“We have to operate existing ERDF programmes according to the regulations. However, the Government believe that the regulations should be focused on ensuring that ERDF meets its objective of promoting economic competitiveness. We will be arguing strongly with the Commission that in the next programme, penalties for things that do not contribute to this objective, such as failing to publicise the programme, should be swept away.”

British taxpayers will be astounded at this current situation. Thankfully, the Government is slowly waking up to this and we can only hope that it will apply sufficient diplomatic pressure to make sure this nonsense is stopped. The EU truly is bloated if it can afford the time and money to waste on pathetic pedantry and bothering people for not flying the right flag or displaying the correct logo.

The Greek Parliament has voted narrowly in favour of an austerity programme, which will enable a new bailout from the EU and IMF. This cash is designed to tackle the national debt and reinvigorate the economy. But the threat of default remains, and rioting continues on the streets of Athens. A similar fate looms large over other member states. So the European Commission will be suitably austere in their own Budget proposals for 2014-2020 then?

Of course not. They are proposing a whopping 5 per cent increase in the EU’s finances, five times the official EU inflation rate, and worth up to £100 billion. This will produce a mammoth €1 trillion budget. For the United Kingdom this will mean increasing our already substantial contribution by £1.4 billion every year for the next seven years until it reaches £23.1 billion. In addition to this a new funding formula will be negotiated, with the aim of further reducing the UK’s rebate. The rawest of deals, at a time when necessary spending reductions are being made within domestic departmental budgets.

Your money, or your life!

It doesn’t stop there. The EU wants its own tax powers to raise revenue independently. This includes a new EU-wide tax, a tax on financial transactions, and greater power over green taxes. This will only increase the ever increasing cost of living, crush economic growth, and punish motorists. Even Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, has spoken out against such plans by describing them as “putting sand in the machine” of Europe’s financial hubs, including the City of London. The UK already has a large, complex, and unfair tax burden without the EU imposing a new layer of distortive taxes on people.

These proposals are scandalous. And only promising a bailout to Greece on the premise of passing an austerity budget is a bit rich, considering the Court of Auditors has repeatedly refused to sign off the EU accounts for 16 years. As we all know, there are many, many areas where the EU could cut its spending radically. For example, Dr Lee Rotherham’s report ‘From thespians to death rays’ exposed numerous examples of waste in EU expenditure, such as €2 million to ‘define God’, and €81,345 spent on a European Masters in Drug and Alcohol studies. Tired and broken structures will be propped up too. Under the new budget proposals the CAP will consume a grand total of €386.9 billion. This programme of agricultural protectionism has wasted billions, created wine lakes and dumped surplus products on struggling third world markets. It must end instead of further subsidies being pumped into the market. In the long term, removing trade barriers would be an effective way to slash our aid budget too, allowing farmers in developing countries to enter the market.

But sadly none of this is in the least bit surprising. The Government must resist these increased budgets and work for reduced contributions to save taxpayers’ money. If that involves flat-out refusing to hand over the money, then that’s the answer.

Sign the petition here

A couple of weeks ago, at the Rally Against Debt, we launched a petition to oppose EU bailouts. Lots of you signed up on paper and hundreds more have signed up online. If you haven’t added your signature yet, here’s why you should.

EU bailouts are storing up debt for the next generation. British taxpayers’ liability for propping up the collapsing euro has rocketed, largely due to a recent rescue package for Portugal. We thought the bailout for Ireland was a bad idea and we opposed that, the Portuguese case seems even more egregious as they couldn’t pass an austerity plan before stretching out the begging-bowl. Worse still it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Greece will need another handout as its debt woes continue.

At a time when we’re making very necessary spending cuts at home, why are we handing over more money to try to save the euro; a mistake we didn’t make?

The Government is disastrously letting down taxpayers by picking up the bill for bailouts to keep the rest of Europe happy. It’s time to say no and oppose the EU bailouts, sign here if you agree.

Three policy areas are exempt from the Coalition Government’s budget plans to slow down the increase in spending. In addition to the well publicised increases on health spending, the Department for International Development and Britain’s payments to the European Union continue to rise rapidly. In addition to the significant and rising (£5.9 billion last year, £6.7 billion this year and £7.2 billion next) sums Andrew Mitchell hands out to various foreign governments and aid projects, a report by Open Europe has shown the EU also has a £10 billion aid budget all of its own (British share of the bill is £1.4 billion), the Daily Telegraph reports.

So where does the EU spend its 11-figure budget?

Belgian dance teachers were recruited to teach people in Burkina Faso – where half the population lives off less than 70p a day – through a project called “I Dance Therefore I Am”

Turkey receives a cool half a billion, twice as much as Afghanistan, despite being over ten times richer. But Turkey applied to join the EU in 1987 and, despite seemingly implacable French and Greek opposition, is still officially an accession country which, in Brussels, counts as a reason to spend a lot of money. Oppressive and corrupt countries also do well. Malawi too will receive almost half a billion pounds over 5 years despite its president, Bingu Mutharika, having bought an airplane after the most recent donation.

Few people will argue that there are many needy people in desperate situations in some of the countries upon whose corrupt governments the EU is lavishing cash and expressive dance troupes.  But none of this should leave officials feeling smug. Giving away other people’s money isn’t generous. EU bureaucrats should trim back their excesses, leave international aid to national governments & individual charity and abandon their generosity-by-proxy.

The European Union is already very expensive.  In 2009, it cost British families £5.3 billion in net contributions but last year that rose to £9.2 billion.  That’s a more than 70 per cent rise in a single year and it means families are paying over £350 a year each in net contributions to the EU.  Even that understates the real cost as a lot of the money that we get back, which is netted off in that figure, is tied to wasteful projects we wouldn’t choose to spend money on ourselves.

And that is just the EU budget.  The amount we pay to actually sustain the EU’s institutions and their spending programmes.  The EU is also used as a vehicle to impose all sorts of costly regulations, bypassing accountable national politics.  Directives are agreed in Brussels and then become  immutable rocks that domestic policy has to be formed around.  Once they get back here, officials and politicians gold plate them.

We saw an example of that at the Budget recently.  In Brussels they agreed the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) which puts limits on industrial emissions and results in higher energy prices for consumers and manufacturing industry.  I would bet that 99 per cent of the British public haven’t even heard of it, and there was certainly no real democratic debate before it was implemented, but we are all paying a significant price for it.  With that policy in place, the Government introduced a new regulation, ostensibly to make it work better called the carbon floor price.  That isn’t being implemented in other European countries, who are content that the EU ETS remain less effective but cheaper.  By 2015-16 the Government’s carbon floor price alone is expected to raise £1.4 billion – about £50 a family.  That’s just the gold plating on one regulation.  The total will be immense.

Now we’re being asked to bailout Portugal.  There is no credible case that it will remedy the dire situation the eurozone is in.  Countries like Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (often known as the PIGS) have suffered because they had very low interest rates set for a then sluggish Germany and that led to a huge boom.  Now that boom has turned to bust and they are sitting on an impossibly large liability for failed banking systems and unaffordable spending.  Their economies are hopelessly uncompetitive but they can’t devalue relative to a now booming Germany.  The European Central Bank have been forced to raise interest rates in order to curb inflation but that will make it significantly harder for the PIGS economies to recover.  Again they are getting almost exactly the monetary policy they don’t need.  As Allister Heath – Chairman of the 2020 Tax Commission – wrote today in City AM, the euro is a one size fits all straitjacket and there is no way that a proper recovery will be possible until the PIGS are cut free.  They will still be facing a very tough situation and some banks will make significant losses, but there is just no sense in kicking the can down the road.  That’s why the bailout for Ireland was a bad idea and we opposed it.

Andrew Lilico, Director and Principal at Europe Economics and a member of the 2020 Tax Commission, wrote a brilliant article yesterday setting out why the Portuguese bailout is a particularly bad idea.  While others came looking for a bailout so it would be easier for them to adjust to living within their means, the Portuguese are coming because they can’t pass an austerity plan.  Martin Callanan, the leader of the Conservative group in the European Parliament, wrote arguing that we shouldn’t take part and that we could fight the bailout politically and legally.

If the Conservative leadership can’t even muster up as much eurosceptic backbone as their MEPs then they will have spectacularly let down taxpayers.  They can’t just keep going with the blame game about whether or not the last Government is responsible.  At the moment it looks very much like that is an excuse to play along and put good relations in Brussels above looking after our money.  There is no way that British taxpayers should be paying to sustain monetary union, a mistake they didn’t make.  We shouldn’t be paying for politicians on the continent just to kick the can down the road.

We have our fair share of differences with George Osborne, but he deserves some credit for this:

“The British Government has put the Commission “on notice” that the accounts, which have not been signed off by auditors for 16 years because of apparent inconsistencies, are unacceptable.

At a meeting of EU finance ministers, Mr Osborne therefore abstained from the vote to endorse the accounts. The British Government, along with their Swedish and Dutch counterparts, are demanding that the Commission publish secret reports detailing how European grants are awarded.”

We do need to know more about how the EU spends our money.  For too long everything from abuses of the expenses system to major spending programmes have been kept quiet.  That combined with the undemocratic nature of the EU institutions makes it nearly impossible for people to challenge ludicrous waste.  And we already know that the EU wastes money in some ridiculous ways.  Here are some examples from a recent TPA research note, from thespians to death rays.

Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent, and they can then come to their own view about the value they get from the millions of pounds of their cash sent to Brussels every single day.