Protests could force EU leaders to fly closer to the common man

There is a raft of helicopters at the ready to transport EU leaders to their summit today if the road from the airport is blocked due to a general strike by Belgian unions.

They are protesting some of the austerity measures put in place by their new government.

The biggest effect will be on public transport. Normally, protesters are kept well out of sight of ministers and leaders attending EU events. Usually, their jets land at the military airport and their cars are escorted by police sirens and outriders.

However, there might be a better chance of the leaders hearing about the plight of citizens if they are flying at low altitude in helicopters.

Enda Kenny will be hoping German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not heard the country’s economic plight is due to the Irish suffering from a form of madness called “borrowing”.

Otherwise, Merkel may insist the insane Irish put her golden rule banning budget deficits into the Constitution, automatically triggering a referendum. nSometimes being the poster boy for Europe is not such a good idea. Take the new emphasis on growth and jobs.

One idea EU leaders have hijacked from the commission for their summit today is to take all the money due to member states in programmes — five, including Ireland — and make it easier and cheaper to access.

Some countries are bad at spending EU money — civil service are slow drawing it down, planners are slow coming up with ideas, and sometimes they are reluctant to invest as much state money in the projects as the EU.

The commission wants to reduce the amount of matching funds required so that for countries such as Hungary they only need to put up 15% money to draw down the money from Brussels.

The problem is that it won’t mean much for some countries in need — Ireland has already spent 99.5%, or €902m, of its European Social Fund allocation and is regularly praised for its ability to quickly draw down funds.

One EU source dismissed the plan as “giving paracetamol for a broken arm”, adding it may alleviate the pain but does not address the root cause. nVeteran politician Proinsias de Rossa had his retirement drinks in the European Parliament during the week. Ireland’s most influential MEP for many years, being well respected in the Socialist group, he won’t only be remembered for his work with the Palestinians and on social issues.

His dogmatic support for Kevin Cardiff, the former Department of Finance chief, for the Court of Auditors job led him to insist that fellow Labour MEP Nessa Childers support him too. There is no whip system in the parliament and Childers, who says she is not really a politician, insisted on following her own advice and opposing the Government’s choice.

Cardiff’s initial rejection by a parliamentary committee saw a rare flurry of activity by the Government, with the Taoiseach and several ministers lobbying on behalf of the man who played a role in the night of the banking guarantee. It resulted in a bizarre election when no reference was made during the plenary vote to Cardiff’s rejection by the committee, whose word is normally law.

But warnings that Cardiff’s seven-year term in Luxembourg would be interrupted by visits home to Anglo investigations may be about to come true. Over the weekend there were reports that the head of banking in the department at the time held “listening briefings” with relevant bankers in the days before the blanket guarantee decision was made.

And if the State gets around to bringing charges against anybody over the banking fiasco, Ireland’s new €276,000-a-year member of the Court of Auditors could find himself called as a witness. nFigures for how much MEPs spent on fact-finding trips are threatening to undermine the parliament’s efforts to ensure a €1 trillion budget for the EU from 2014-2020.

The cost of some of these trips by delegations tasked with maintaining relations with the rest of the world and designed to contribute to better policy making has been highlighted by the EU sceptic group in parliament.

The most expensive trip per head saw four MEPs — members of the EU-Latin America delegation — travel to Buenos Aires in March 2010 for a five-day meeting at a cost of over €5,200-a-day per MEP.

The costliest overall trip saw over €1m spent to bring 50 MEPs to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo for eight days in November 2010 — €2,564 per MEP per day.

The most expensive trip inside the EU was also clocked up by the African-Caribbean-Pacific delegation for seven days in Tenerife in January 2010. It cost €707,133 for the 64 MEPs, who travelled at an average cost per MEP of €11,049.

The parliament points out the total cost includes support staff such as translators, hire of meeting rooms, transport, etc.