The number of EU civil servants should be slashed, the Strasburg operation shut down, support for tobacco growers should be stopped and much more done to combat fraud, says the CDA in its manifesto for the June European parliamentary elections.

The €23.2bn savings the cuts would generate would allow the Netherlands’ contribution to the EU to be cut by €1.15bn, campaign leader Wim van de Camp says in Monday’s Telegraaf.
‘There are billions to be saved on the EU’s budget,’ Van de Camp said. The time is now right to have a good look at the effectiveness of Brussels’ spending plans, he said.
Pay levels
By working more efficiently, the number of EU civil servants could be cut by 6,700, he said. Salaries should also be tackled. ‘An EU civil servant takes home twice to three-times the pay of a Dutch civil servant on the same grade. Something has to happen.’
Van de Camp also wants an end to the €1.1bn spent on subsidising tobacco growing.
And measures to cut fraud, improve the control of spending from special EU funds and claw back money which has been wrongly spent can all generate billions of euros in savings, he says.
The Netherlands will vote for a new European parliament on June 4.
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