BOOZE, PARTIES, HOLIDAYS... HOW BRUSSELS SPENDS YOUR CASH
CHAMPAGNE-POPPING Eurocrats splashed out more than £100,000 of taxpayers’ cash on restocking their wine cellar last year, new figures reveal.
The audit of Brussels spending shows the EU Council, headed by Donald Tusk, spent the six-figure sum on up to 4,000 bottles of champagne.
According to the documents, officials insisted they had to be authentic bottles from the Champagne region in northeast France. They show the contract was with Brussels-based drink firm Cinoco, which specialises in sourcing high-end brands such as Bollinger and Ayala.
The audit also reveals nearly £50,000 was splurged on the end-of-year party for EU Council staff – renowned in Brussels for its three-course dinner and all-night revels with an open bar for up to 3,000 staff. Further
purchases included spending £40,000 on a bonding day at a theme park in Belgium for EU Council staff and their children and £25,000 for ‘renting of furniture’ from the high-end Dutch firm Alvero Kantoormeubelverhuur.
The UK pays around £9billion to the EU each year and the bloc is demanding £39billion as part of the Brexit divorce bill agreed by Theresa May – even if there is No Deal. The bill for all expenditure is footed by European taxpayers.
Brexit Party MEP Michael Heaver, who unearthed some of the items, said: ‘To spend these ridiculous sums on things like champagne, theme park visits and boozy parties really is rubbing the taxpayer’s nose in it.’ The European Parliament in Strasbourg was asked yesterday to sign off on some of the spending, which also related to 2017.
Among the items was more than £85,000 on a ‘relaxation armchair’, more than £15,000 on ‘shooting range rental’ and £30,000 on another theme park bonding day at the Adventure Valley Durbuy in south-east Belgium.
An EU Council spokesman said: ‘The administrative expenditures are meant to cover the functioning of the institution. This includes spending related to staff and working conditions of staff and to the Council business.
‘An official lunch/dinner is usually a component of most of our high-level meetings, hence some of our spending related to catering and beverage.’