Junket Juncker lavishes £24,000 of taxpayer cash on an ‘air taxi’ (that’s a private jet) for Rome jaunt
And Eurocrats have fought for years to keep that – and £425,000 of his pals’ travel costs – secret from you
‘Clearly over the top’
EUROPEAN Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker spent nearly £24,000 on a private jet for a one-night trip to Rome, it was revealed yesterday.
The visit – funded by EU taxpayers – was just one example of ‘outrageous’ spending as the Commission’s expenses were released for the first time.
The claims for the first two months of last year ran to almost £450,000 on 261 official trips – £8,000 per month for each of the 28 unelected commissioners.
Campaigners have fought for two years for access to the expenses of the unelected commissioners, but the EU has released just two months’ worth.
The European Commission is refusing to disclose other expenses due to the ‘excessive administrative burden’ – claiming it is already ‘one of the most controlled organisations in the world’.
A large chunk of the money was spent on chartered private plane trips – including Mr Juncker’s 26,351 euros (£23,815) for a trip to the Italian capital from the commission’s Brussels base in February last year.
The commission said such ‘air taxis’ can be used if no commercial flights are available that fit a commissioner’s schedule.
But there are six daily commercial flights between the Belgian capital and Rome, plus another flight from nearby Brussels South Charleroi airport.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini made the most expensive trip, spending 77,118 euros (£69,695) going from Belgium to Baku in Azerbaijan.
This included the cost of a chartered plane for a delegation of six to eight, which then travelled to another summit in Armenia before returning to Brussels.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage branded the claims ‘outrageous’.
The MEP said: ‘Juncker spending 27,000 euros on a private jet at taxpayers’ expense is clearly over the top especially when many normal flights are available.
‘I suppose these junket expenses are all part of the make-believe “Brexit bill” which these commissioners have plucked out of thin air and trying to extort from our Government.’
The most expensive overnight stay, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, cost 629 euros (£ 568). A trip by Christos Stylianides, the commissioner for humanitarian aid, that stopped off at countries including Somalia and Turkey set taxpayers back 11,000 euros (£9,940).
And Britain’s commissioner Jonathan Hill spent almost 3,500 euros (£3,165) on flights, hotels and food and drink for a two-day trip to Davos in Switzerland.
The documents revealed that the commissioners from the 27 EU nations other than Britain ran up an expenses bill of nearly 500,000 euros (£452,770) in January and February last year.
Commission spokesman Mina Andreeva said Mr Juncker’s jet had been chartered because there was ‘no viable commercial plane available that would fit the president’s agenda’ and the flight cost 2,927 euros (£2,650) for each of the nine-person delegation.
She said the flights on ‘air taxis’ involved ‘hard work’ such as ‘reading documents with your files and marking them’, adding: ‘So I think you will be disappointed as to the travelling experience.’
Asked if the cost of the flights would be included in the so-called ‘divorce bill’ Britain is being asked to pay to settle budget commitments, she replied: ‘The flights are part of the yearly budget that the commission has and that is audited and there is an administrative section so it’s within this section that we can spend travel expenses and this is outlined in the yearly budget.’
She also denied that there was a Brexit bill, saying: ‘There are outstanding commitments that need to be paid and this is part of the negotiations.’
The European Commission is demanding Britain pays a financial settlement for leaving the EU of up to 100billion euros. The travel is paid out of the EU budget, of which it has been estimated Britain provides 12.5 per cent.
Travelling commissioners have accommodation covered, as well as getting a daily subsistence fee to cover food if they spend more than six hours out of Belgium. Mr Juncker claimed about 500 euros (£450) for his room in Rome.
He also claimed nearly 2,000 euros(£1,807) for a trip to Berlin,
which can cost as little as 25 euros (£23) on a budget airline.
Mr Juncker, whose salary is 324,377 euros (£293,204), also submitted 48 euros (£43) in ‘daily allowances’ to attend a meeting in Germany. Neven Mimica, commissioner for international co-operation, went to Burkina Faso at a cost of 8,000 euros (£7,233).
And a four- day trip to Guatemala cost more than 10,000 euros (£9,040). The commissioners are each paid between £18,000 and £21,700 a month.
Helen Darbishire, of transparency group Access Info Europe which campaigned to see the travel claims, said that the release of just two months’ expenses was a ‘token gesture’.
She added: ‘The real cost here is not the cost of processing data, but rather it’s the cost to the credibility of and trust in the European Commission when it refuses to publish basic information about the spending of taxpayers’ funds.’