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EU staff strike against budget cuts

08 November 2012, 16:51 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - Workers in the European Union's main institutions went on strike Thursday to protest planned spending cuts they say will be detrimental for the EU's 500 million citizens.

About 500 demonstrators gathered outside the high-tech facade of the European Commission in the EU quarter of eastern Brussels carrying posters, "Europe is in Danger" and "Stop the Cuts."

"The total EU budget works out at just 0.67 euros per day per person," unions said in a joint statement ahead of ministerial talks Friday in Brussels on the 2013 budget.

"We demand that the member states have the courage to say to their citizens that cutting the EU budget will have a higher cost -- the cost of not having Europe," it said.

The EU employs some 40,000 people in all and unions said they hoped for a 10 percent turnout. No final figure was immediately available and while some services were affected, such as live translation, others seemed to carry on normally.

The European Commission has proposed a 6.8 percent increase to 138 billion euros in the 2013 budget but many of the 27 member states are outraged to pay more at a time when they are cutting domestic spending.

France, Finland and Germany have said they want to cut 5.0 billion euros while Britain has suggested even more as all sides prepare for a tough summit later this month on the even more contentious 2014-20 budget.

Adminstrative costs typically take 6.0 percent of the total, with salaries alone at about 3.0 percent.


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