Brussels hands taxpayers €1 BILLION bill to expand already-bloated EU 'gravy train'

BRUSSELS politicians are set to bill EU taxpayers an extra €1 BILLION in order to fund MORE personal assistants, it has emerged.

EurosGETTY

MEPs earn around £3,000 more than UK MPs

The already-bloated staff employed by the EU is set to expand as each of the European Parliament's members (MEPs) are due to receive an extra €18,000 (£12,952) per year to bulk out their workforce.

The move will inflate the staff budget for each MEP to an eye-watering €275,000 (£198,000) per year, meaning the total bill for a five-year parliamentary term would rocket to €1billion – or £720million.

Critics have blasted “out of touch” MEPs for claiming the huge sum, which comes on top of  their individual salary of almost £70,000 – not including expenses. 

The hike in spending on extra assistants amounts to a seven per cent increase – but some MEPs had argued for an extra €36,000 per year (a 14 per cent increase) to fund the new staff. 

The latest increase will see MEP’s personal staff allowance rise to €23,000 a month by 2016.

While countries across Europe are making tough choices to fix their public finances, the Brussels gravy train continues full speed ahead

Taxpayers' Alliance

However, some groups, including the Greens, opposed any rise at all. 

European politicians are entitled to hire up to three assistants in Brussels as well as an unlimited number of locally-based administrators.

However, some MEPs continue to snub the perk, with Ukip leader Nigel Farage employing no Brussels-based assistants and only one based locally.

MPs in the UK are paid £67,060 a year, which takes into account a one per cent increase last April.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "While countries across Europe are making tough choices to fix their public finances, the Brussels gravy train continues full speed ahead. 

“EU politicians and officials are so out of touch with the pressures facing hard-pressed taxpayers and awarding themselves bigger budgets for their offices just goes to show it. 

“The system has to be urgently reformed to ensure that the EU faces the same pressures as national governments and starts living within taxpayers' means."

The EU in numbers

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