A British think tank has discovered that the EU has many more employees than it is actually admitting.....
Found: EU's 29,000 hidden employees
By Rob Watts, Sunday Telegraph
28/01/2007
The European Commission's website claims it has 25,000 staff. The British Government thinks the number is about 37,000. But the total employed by the Brussels executive is actually more than 54,000, researchers at the Westminster think tank Open Europe have discovered.
Many earn far more than senior Whitehall civil servants. Open Europe found that the commission itself employs more than 42,000 officials, but a further 12,000 are employed at low-profile organisations such as the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Community Plant Variety Office and the European Personal Selection Agency.
Open Europe has also discovered that there are more than twice as many Brussels officials earning top salaries as there are in the British civil service. It found almost 10,000 EU officials earning more than £54,000, compared with 4,640 across all Whitehall departments.
Lorraine Mullally, of Open Europe, said: "The EU discreetly publishes a Statistical Bulletin listing staff levels at its agencies, but when we contacted these agencies directly we found they had far more staff than listed."
Many of the agencies took months to answer requests. One, the European Police College, repeatedly refused to disclose its staff numbers
Michael Gove, a Conservative MP who sits on the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said: "We know that the EU has a system of allocating jobs that is more about giving jobs to the boys in favoured member states, and not about spending taxpayers' money efficiently. It's pork-barrel politics."
telegraph.co.uk
---------------------------------
A nice cartoon from the UK Independence party -
Found: EU's 29,000 hidden employees
By Rob Watts, Sunday Telegraph
28/01/2007
The European Commission's website claims it has 25,000 staff. The British Government thinks the number is about 37,000. But the total employed by the Brussels executive is actually more than 54,000, researchers at the Westminster think tank Open Europe have discovered.
Many earn far more than senior Whitehall civil servants. Open Europe found that the commission itself employs more than 42,000 officials, but a further 12,000 are employed at low-profile organisations such as the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Community Plant Variety Office and the European Personal Selection Agency.
Open Europe has also discovered that there are more than twice as many Brussels officials earning top salaries as there are in the British civil service. It found almost 10,000 EU officials earning more than £54,000, compared with 4,640 across all Whitehall departments.
Lorraine Mullally, of Open Europe, said: "The EU discreetly publishes a Statistical Bulletin listing staff levels at its agencies, but when we contacted these agencies directly we found they had far more staff than listed."
Many of the agencies took months to answer requests. One, the European Police College, repeatedly refused to disclose its staff numbers
Michael Gove, a Conservative MP who sits on the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said: "We know that the EU has a system of allocating jobs that is more about giving jobs to the boys in favoured member states, and not about spending taxpayers' money efficiently. It's pork-barrel politics."
telegraph.co.uk
---------------------------------
A nice cartoon from the UK Independence party -