02/08/2013

As eurozone leaders lock horns over the budget deal, speculation is rife the EU is set to invest millions in a PR campaign against online critics. It puts the EU Parliament on a par with so-called 'banana republics', MEP Nigel Farage told RT.

"The words 'legal' and 'European Union' don't fit together. Nothing matters here, there are no rules," says the UK Independence Party's Nigel Farage of the EP plan to spend huge sums of taxpayer money on social network smear campaigns against those who speak out against it.

It comes as EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day summit, where they are attempting to reach a consensus on the nearly 1-trillion-euro budget deal to support agriculture, transportation, research projects and infrastructure in the eurozone. The talks already appear to be on shaky ground. British PM David Cameron – the strongest supporter of budget cuts – threatened to pull out if the figure isn't lowered. France's President Francois Hollande expressed displeasure with Britain's general relationship with the union and strongly advocated agricultural spending, on which many southern member-states depend. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that a deal on the thorny issue remains a long way off.

The leaders had already failed to see eye-to-eye in November, which raises the stakes, seeing as a repeat failure would force the EU to use provisional annual budgets. If no deal is reached during this summit a decision may be stalled until 2015 when the UK is set to hold a critical referendum on EU membership.

But whilst leaders in Brussels spar over the budget, the European Parliament has reportedly been busy planning to dish out 2 million euro to aid an online campaign to skew public opinion in its favor. Allegations that funds may be pumped into defending the EU on social networking sites were originally made by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Nigel Farage of the UK's Independence Party said the move is madness. He believes this is a sign of fear and the Eurozone's utter denial of economic and political realities.

Via RT