The 4.9% rise in the European Union’s budget for next year is disproportional, finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said on Wednesday.

In total, the EU has published plans to spend €132.7bn next year, an increase of €6bn on 2011.
‘These proposals are out of all proportion,’ De Jager is quoted as saying by the Financieele Dagblad. ‘I cannot explain to the people of the Netherlands that the EU budget is getting bigger while everyone else has to cut back.’
European Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, who is in charge of the community’s budget, says the increase is need to fund social projects and for research and development.
De Jager said he will try to have the budget cut during the next negotiations on the spending plans.
The British government has also said the 4.9% increase is not acceptable, the BBC reports.
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