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Meg
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26-09-2018, 08:39 PM
11

Re: This is not right

MEP's expenses....
it's all part of the great EU Circus ....

The farce of the EU travelling circus

It is perhaps the most outlandish of the European Union’s excesses; a £130 million travelling circus that once a month sees the European Parliament decamp from Belgium to France.

Over the course of the weekend, some 2,500 plastic trunks will be loaded on to five lorries and driven almost 300 miles from Brussels to Strasbourg.

On Monday, about 1,000 politicians, officials and translators will then make the same journey on two specially chartered trains hired at taxpayers’ expense.

n all, the EU admits that the monthly Strasbourg sitting, which lasts just four days, costs an additional £93 million a year. The Conservative Party in Europe, which is leading a campaign to abandon it, estimates the cost a little higher at £130 million, or about £928 million in the seven-year cycle of an EU budget.

Among the costs are £250,000 a year to transport the plastic boxes containing documents, diaries and other items from Brussels to Strasbourg and back again. The boxes are left outside offices in Brussels on a Friday evening, collected by a courier company and driven to Strasbourg, where they are unloaded and left outside offices there. The process is repeated in reverse on Thursday evening.

It is thought it costs up to £200,000 for the EU to charter two express trains to take officials, MEPs and others there on a Monday morning and back on a Thursday afternoon. The trains stop only once at an airport in Paris to collect or drop MEPs and no ordinary member of the public can get on board, for a train which arrives in time for parliamentary sessions beginning in the afternoon.

Many of the details are contained within a report into the “financial and environmental impact” of operating two parliaments, which was overseen by Klaus Welle, the secretary-general to the European Parliament, its top civil servant. Mr Welle had been requested by MEPs to give an accurate figure on the costs of two parliaments amid a growing clamour to scrap one of them.

The report shows how taxpayers foot the £2.5 million bill for relocating freelance translators from Brussels to Strasbourg and back again, including costs of travel, accommodation and other expenses.

Providing catering services in Strasbourg costs an additional £1 million, while extra medical support comes to some £330,000.

In Strasbourg, extra money is needed for computers and IT support and for maintenance and security of the sleek parliament building, which was completed in 1999. In total, the cost of looking after the French buildings and infrastructure and other charges comes to about £50 million a year.

One source suggested that before each session begins, a maintenance crew visits every bathroom and turns on and off every tap to make sure no pipes have been blocked since they were last used and to rid the pipes of stale water.

A spokesman said that the maintenance teams looked after the building just like any other.

About 100 people are employed in Strasbourg full-time, even though the European Parliament meets for 12 sessions, each lasting four days, a total of only 48 days each year.

But during those four-day sessions, the circus is in town. About 5,500 people pour into Strasbourg; not only politicians and officials but lobbyists, too.

Hotels in Strasbourg typically double their rates when the EU comes to stay. Last week, the Hilton Hotel in Strasbourg was offering rooms at £82 for Sunday night, but this rose to a cheapest rate of £161 a night for Monday, when the sessions begin.

One MEP said he booked his accommodation a staggering five years in advance to ensure obtaining a room at a reasonable rate.

For an EU obsessed by climate change and its possible effects, more embarrassing is the report’s admission that “10,200 tonnes of CO2 per year would be saved if Strasbourg were no longer used as a place of work”.

That is the equivalent of 12,000 cars driving around the circumference of the world.

In an attempt to cut emissions, at the end of last year MEPs were sent an email from the parliament’s helpdesk, informing them that, from now on, all televisions in Strasbourg would be switched off between plenary sessions.

In other words, it suggests that for the previous 14 years, televisions had been left on for weeks at a time, even when MEPs were in Brussels rather than France. It goes on to explain how MEPs can switch their televisions back on.

The helpdesk email. which has been passed to The Telegraph, states: “We hereby inform you that we took the initiative to turn off all the TV sets in Strasbourg between the sessions.

“Apart from the substantial reduction of energy consumption, this action will also provide for a better protection of these devices in case of sudden electrical incident.

“When arriving to your office at Strasbourg, you will have to turn on again the TV before using the remote control to select your channel (the switch is located behind the TV set).

“Please note that individual requests to turn on again your TV before your arrival can be addressed to the LSU MEP Helpdesk. Please also remember to turn off as many

devices as you can before leaving your EP office in Brussels as well as in Strasbourg for the reasons explained above.

“We are convinced as well as you that the sum of small actions can contribute to a better environment, and we thank you in advance for your cooperation.”

MEPs are fed up with the upheaval and cost created by the Strasbourg circus. At the end of last year, they voted for the two-parliament system to be scrapped by a three-to-one majority. But change is unlikely to happen soon.

The problem is simple: the French government, which has a power of veto, will not budge. The French insist on maintaining Strasbourg’s role because of the substantial amount of money the travelling circus brings to the region. Its status is set in stone under a European treaty signed in 1992, which can only be revoked should all member states agree it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ng-circus.html
But not to worry , the MEP's are not footing the bill we are...
itsme
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27-09-2018, 10:46 AM
12

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by Barry ->
The EU is awash with other people's cash, so why should they care how much is fiddled away, just one of the many, many reasons why we need to get the hell out of there pronto...
Barry, I don't see the link between MEP's using the system (which is evidently wrong) to their advantage and leaving the EU.
After all we didn't stop using banks after being ripped off, we don't stop using the NHS because of the problems which have been presented.
What we should do is stick with it and change the system with the help of others.

Kicking our toys out the pram and running for the hills is not the answer.
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27-09-2018, 12:09 PM
13

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by itsme ->
Barry, I don't see the link between MEP's using the system (which is evidently wrong) to their advantage and leaving the EU.
After all we didn't stop using banks after being ripped off, we don't stop using the NHS because of the problems which have been presented.
What we should do is stick with it and change the system with the help of others.

Kicking our toys out the pram and running for the hills is not the answer.
I think I can see the connection, because when our own MPs were wrongly claiming expenses this British people were furious and action had to be taken!
Do you really think that the EU are going to put serious restrictions on claimed expenses when they are still trying to convince all the countries, who are not yet leaving, that the EU is their best option! I am sure they will come up with many good reasons why the expenses claimed are essential for the good of all member countries!
With 26 countries being involved in any vote on this, there will always be an underhand method of getting a majority vote....... Unless you believe that all those, who will vote, are honest upstanding politicians who aren't the sort of people who like to feather their own nest, rather than look after the EU population.
I don't trust any politician, but if our government want our votes, they have to take action when the people protest!
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27-09-2018, 12:41 PM
14

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by swimfeeders ->
Hi

Discuss technical things, just as easy to do by video conference.

Much cheaper than an overnight stay in London, Eurostar there and back, and train back to Shropshire, all paid for by the taxpayer.

Same effect could have been achieved at a tenth of the cost to the taxpayer.

That comes under the Common Sense Banner, Governments, MPs, MEPs, Company Bosses, ect ect simply don't do Common Sense....Unless they have to pay for it themselves.
Dextrous63
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29-09-2018, 01:16 PM
15

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by swimfeeders ->
Hi

It is not just the MEPs it is the Civil Servants as well.

When I was working I suggest that rather than swan off to Brussels on a Friday we could do most of it by video conferencing.

I was firmly put in my place.
The trouble is that it's not possible to engage physically in extramarital affairs via video conferencing
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29-09-2018, 01:26 PM
16

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by Dextrous63 ->
The trouble is that it's not possible to engage physically in extramarital affairs via video conferencing
That is very true Dextrous63. Mind you, if we made them have double rooms instead of 2 singles, it may be a few euros cheaper!
Dextrous63
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30-09-2018, 02:20 AM
17

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by itsme ->
What we should do is stick with it and change the system with the help of others.
Out of interest, who are these "others"?
itsme
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30-09-2018, 11:42 AM
18

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by Dextrous63 ->
Out of interest, who are these "others"?
#
Let me guess, I'll bet you haven't even contacted your MEP and complained about the expenses scandal. Instead like MEG with the cutting and pasting of a piece from the Telegraph you would rather sit around winging rather than doing something yourself.

Or like others on this post making stupid comments about what can or can't be done on a conference call.

The others? are the people out there who are willing to do something.

New analysis by the CER – which we will update quarterly – estimates that the UK economy is 2.1 per cent smaller as a result of the vote to leave the EU. The knock-on hit to the public finances is now £23 billion per annum – or £440 million a week.

IS IT WORTH IT
Dextrous63
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30-09-2018, 02:16 PM
19

Re: This is not right

Originally Posted by itsme ->
#
Let me guess, I'll bet you haven't even contacted your MEP and complained about the expenses scandal. Instead like MEG with the cutting and pasting of a piece from the Telegraph you would rather sit around winging rather than doing something yourself.
Er, nope

Originally Posted by itsme ->
Or like others on this post making stupid comments about what can or can't be done on a conference call.
Only in a light humorous manner

Originally Posted by itsme ->
The others? are the people out there who are willing to do something.
As asked, who are these people? In spite of your piqued and terse response, you haven't actually identified any

Originally Posted by itsme ->
New analysis by the CER – which we will update quarterly – estimates that the UK economy is 2.1 per cent smaller as a result of the vote to leave the EU. The knock-on hit to the public finances is now £23 billion per annum – or £440 million a week.

IS IT WORTH IT
Thank you for that.

Now, please try to actually answer my question

Are you referring to individuals, small groups, growing lobbying groups, governments, opposition parties in the UK and/or Europe?

Not sure why my asking for clarification from you leads you to your spurious and to be frank, desultory and rude conclusions
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30-09-2018, 02:54 PM
20

Re: This is not right

When I used to be an examiner for a fairly small (at the time) exam board I was always being put up in the most expensive and luxurious hotels (could have paid me more if they'd cut back on that!)
Anyway my point is this, I observed first hand, employees milking the gravy train
They were usually the type who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths (who could probably best afford the all expenses freebies) and had gained a standing in a lucrative company/government office not through their own merits but by their membership to the "old-school network"
They never hid it! In fact some would be using it to boast/impress!
Annoyingly they usually had bags and bags of charm though too
 
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