How the European Parliament is spending your taxes

Here 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?