Baroness Ashton demands more cash for EU diplomats as national governments face cuts

[-:Undertaker:-]

Last one for now, I promise.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...face-cuts.html

Baroness Ashton demands more cash for diplomats as national governments face cuts

Baroness Ashton has demanded an eight per cent budget increase for her new EU diplomatic corps at a time when national government departments, including Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, face deep cuts.

Lady Ashton faced sharp criticism on Monday for breaking promises to deliver a neutral budget for next year when the spiralling administrative costs of her new European External Action Service (EEAS) overrun by £29 million to reach £399 million, even before it is fully operational. "It is totally unacceptable to break the promise of budget neutrality at a time when people in Britain are facing austerity and cuts. I believe she is flying a kite to see what she can get away with," said Charles Tannock, a London MEP and the Tory foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament. "We need a leaner and meaner EEAS and there is plenty of fat to cut."

An extra £24.6 million was requested to pay eurocrat wages and an extra £4.4 million for upgrading buildings for the EEAS's new Brussels HQ, which has yet to be chosen. The proposals also warn that the EEAS, which was created by the Lisbon Treaty, will face unknown costs when completely it takes over the diplomatic role of the EU presidency, which is currently rotated every six months between the EU's 27 countries. Mats Persson, the director of the Open Europe pressure group, said it was unclear what benefits the public would receive from the extra costs. "The cost of the EU's diplomatic bureaucracy is already unacceptably high, particularly as the new structure stands the risk of adding more, not less, confusion about who is speaking on behalf of Europe, in addition to drawing funds away from national foreign ministries at a time when funds are scarce," he said. A spokesman for Lady Ashton, the EU's High Representative for foreign affairs, said: "She wants 10 per cent efficiency savings for the service but for now there is some start up cost. Budget neutrality is a very clear commitment."

Baroness Ashton is above criticism usually, even in the EU 'parliament'.

Well I do think it is important people see how much this thing costs us and what kind of people (Baroness who?) are milking us dry - because in a few months we are going to be having cuts as a country and maybe then the sting will bring back some memories of people such as Cathy Ashton or Herman Van Rompuy who are using your money to fund their expensive lifestyles and bureaucratic departments which serve absolutely no purpose what so ever.

Thoughts? (if any, well at least you are aware of it now).

[Caution]

Did they actually cut him off as he said something they didn't want to hear? It's laughable.. :L