Cox hits out at Euro scrooges

COUNTRIES who want to skimp on paying for the European Union got a rap on the knuckles from Parliament president Pat Cox.

Proposals for a seven-year €1,000 billion budget for the enlarged 25 member European Union will be unveiled in Strasbourg today by Commission president Romano Prodi. However, a number of the large countries have been warning they do not want to spend more on the union despite it taking in ten new and mostly poor member states.

Mr Cox, responding to this threat yesterday told member states that they had to put their money where there mouths were. “In too much of European policy and politics there are gaps between rhetoric and realisation, between lofty conclusions of agreements at summits and delivery of a product in the end. This is not the time to do Europe on the cheap, nor is it the time for short termism, retreat or hesitation.”