How the European Parliament is spending your taxes

There are highlights of the draft budget proposed by the European Parliament for its own building programme:

  • €40 million for new office space in Brussels to accommodate the 150 new staff members and 66 contract staff
  • €586 million to renovate and extend the European Parliament building in Luxembourg (you didn’t know that the European Parliament had a building in Luxembourg as well as Brussels and Strasbourg, did you?)
  • €80 million to provide an additional office for each MEP for the accommodation of a third or fourth assistant
  • €10 million for a second creche in Brussels
  • €20 million for a “House of European History”

Although the member states are working to constrain their expenditure, one item in their national budgets keeps rising: contributions to the EU budget. Recession? What recession?

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the EU is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free. He is the winner of the Bastiat Award for online journalism.

By Daniel Hannan
Last updated: March 26th, 2010

Source: The Telegraph

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