You could get a few rounds in with this

Just been wiffling through the General Budget of the European Union, as you do on a Saturday morning, and this little item in the Parliament budget caught my eye.

Article 3 0 4 — Miscellaneous expenditure on meetings 

Item 3 0 4 0 — Miscellaneous expenditure on internal meetings 

You know, the loose change, indeed this budget line is 

intended to cover the costs of the beverages, refreshments and occasional light meals served at meetings held by the institution, together with the management costs for these services.

Appropriations 2010 : 3 050 000

Now admittedly this drops in 2011 to 2.5 million, but both are a huge leap up from the 2.1 of 2009. The thing is, if an MEP hosts a reception they have to pay for the drinks themselves. So this is only the official Parliamentary events. The coffee handed round during Committee meetings, the individual bottles of water, that sort of stuff. Surely the MEPs and staff could get their own coffee? Surely they can use tap water like normal people (and it would help their precious carbon footprint too).