In a vote to clear the EU's budget for 2010, MEPs have today sent out another strong message of support for a single working location of the European Parliament.

EU Member States continue to veto a single seat for the European Parliament despite the fact that it would achieve estimated savings of € 180million (£145million) a year.

Today the European Parliament approved a report on the future of regional airports. The text sets out for the first time a framework and a definition for regional airports, which are increasingly proving to be key in boosting competitiveness and in promoting European regional development.

MEP Giommaria Uggias (Italia dei Valori, Italy) ALDE spokesperson on this dossier said: "With this report the European Parliament stresses the vital role that regional airports can play in reinforcing European cohesion policy and EU territorial continuity. In addition, regional airports can act as catalysts for the creation of new jobs, especially in the most depressed and less developed areas of Europe ".

Throughout April the Social Europe Journal has been running an online debate about Britain's role in Europe.

The debate is presented in a series of articles/essays available of the SEJ website: http://www.social-europe.eu/category/debate-2/britain-in-europe-debate/

As the name suggests, the SEJ is a left wing think-tank but the topics may be of interest to anyone interested in Britain's relationship with the European Union. Topics include:

Catherine Bearder MEP

After careful consideration, Lib Dem MEPs have decided to reject the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the European Parliament. There is now a majority in the Parliament that will reject the ratification of this plurilateral treaty originally designed to establish international standards for intellectual property rights.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament announced today that it cannot support ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).

Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader said that "Although we unambiguously support the protection of intellectual property rights, we also champion fundamental rights and freedoms. We have serious concerns that ACTA does not strike the right balance."

Today the European Commission published its draft proposals for the 2013 EU budget. The proposals set out a budget of €138bn, a 6.8% increase on this year's spending.

Commenting on the draft budget, Senior Liberal Democrat MEP and Vice President of the Budget Committee in the European Parliament, George Lyon said:

"During tough economic times when households budgets are shrinking and people are worried about their jobs it is hard to justify any EU budget increase.

"People expect the European budget to reflect the gravity of the economic situation we face.

"However, this proposed budget increase has nothing to do with increased spending in Brussels. It is the direct result of increased demand for co-financed EU spending by Member States as they scramble to draw down EU funds before the end of this seven year financial planning period."

Mr Lyon, who is in charge of a new working group set up to find savings in the administrative budget of the European Parliament, added:

"MEPs are determined to find more savings and efficiencies from the EU administrative budget, which is around 6% of the total budget.

"However, if we want to cut the budget back to the level that people across the EU demand then Member States must engage with Parliament to find savings out of the 94% of the budget that is spent directly in the backyards of EU Member States.

"The Budget Committee would like to hear representations from national governments on which roads, bridges and other projects in their own countries they want scrapped or delayed."

Meeting in Leuven this weekend, the European Federalists have set their sights at the elections to the European Parliament in 2014.

"Our goal is simple," said UEF President Andrew DUFF. "It's to get more federalists elected so that the next Parliament will be more progressive and ambitious than this one".

A joint statement agreed by the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) called for a large congress to be held in the autumn of 2013 (probably in Berlin) to which the leaders of the European political parties would be invited to respond to a federalist election manifesto.

Andrew Duff MEP said: "This manifesto must comprise the agenda for the next constitutional Convention which will have to open in 2015. Above all, it needs to promote the big push towards the federal Europe that appears yet to intimidate Europe's political class. This means fiscal union based on democratic solidarity between states and citizens with a federal economic government. The agenda will have to rectify some mistakes made in the Treaty of Lisbon, as well as considering the conferral of further competences on the EU, for example in the fields
of energy supply and visa policy."

JEF President Pauline Gessant said: " JEF and UEF welcome all the recent initiatives put forward by organizations, personalities, and movements that support the European political union on a federal basis, along the lines of the battle that JEF and UEF, through its national, regional and local organisations, have been waging for years. JEF and UEF will take the lead to organise a European Coalition for a Federal Union in view of the European elections to put pressure on governments and political parties".

In his closing speech to the Leuven meeting, Duff warned not to expect great things of the present leadership of Europe. "One does not have to subscribe fully to Mr Juncker's description of his colleagues as 'ungifted pragmatists' to know that the present European Council -- even with a swap of Hollande for Sarkozy -- will not be capable of
saving the European project."

Mr Duff also emphasised the importance of dealing with the British problem up front to find a settlement that was mutually satisfactory for both the UK and the rest of the EU. "The UK does not have the moral authority to stop Europe going forward".

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