Secret ballot on EU budget can only be initiated by MEPs

A secret ballot on the EU budget would be unacceptable - if you are elected by the people to a political assembly, then the people must be able to hold you accountable, write Swedish MPs Karl Sigfrid and Andreas Norlen.

MEPs and EU leaders will this week look to a political deal on the 2014-2020 budget.

MEPs are ready to accept the 3 percent EU budget cut agreed by governments in return for more flexibility, according to documents seen by EUobserver.

Some Western European politicians are reviving the chimera of a negotiated settlement. None of this makes the current, half-hearted approach towards sanctioning Russia look better — nor does it shed any favourable light on the cravenness of Hungary's current government.

Ukraine is finally understood — and hopefully Belarus will be soon too — as a self-standing society and state with close links to its EU neighbours, rather being relegated to Russia's backyard.

Democratic Unionist MPs could affirm unequivocally they support the Good Friday Agreement, with no return of a border with physical controls on movement of people, goods or agricultural produce within the island of Ireland — but they won't.