This is how Juncker spends our money!

EU chief splashes €27k on expenses and private jet

EUROPEAN Commission president Jean Claude Juncker and his team racked up a €27,000 expenses bill for EU taxpayers by chartering a private jet for a one-night visit to Rome.

Documents released by the Commission after a two-year battle with human rights group Access Info revealed that the 28 commissioners accumulated a near-€500,000 expenses bill in just two months last year.

This works out at almost €9,000 a month for each commissioner.

Among the papers were claims for so-called ‘air taxis’ – private jets which commissioners are supposed to charter when there are no commercial options available.

Mr Juncker, as part of a nineperson Chartered ‘air taxis’: Juncker delegation, chartered one such jet for a trip to Rome on February 25 and 26, 2016 at a cost of €26,351.

Commission deputy chief spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the private jet was chartered by Mr Juncker and the delegation because there was ‘no viable commercial plane available that would fit the president’s agenda’ and stressed the €2,927 cost of the flight when the eight other members of Mr Juncker’s team were taken into account.

She added: ‘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.’

A controversial figure known for his bullish style, Mr Juncker inflamed the already sensitive Brexit negotiations in April when officials close to him linked details of a disastrous dinner with British prime minister Theresa May.

When Mrs May was said to have refused to accept the UK owed the EU billions of euros, she was told in response that the EU was ‘not a golf club’.

Shortly after the meeting, then-foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan said Mr Juncker needed to ‘cool it’ when it comes to the escalating diplomatic ill-will between Europe and the UK.

Mr Flanagan said: ‘The heat of a British election is no time for megaphones across the channel.’

He added: ‘Two words – cool it. I’d ask both sides to cool it.

In May, Mr Juncker took another unhelpful swipe at the British when he switched from speaking English to French at an event as he said it was no-longer the pre-eminent language in the EU.

‘I will express myself in French because slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe,’ he quipped.

‘It is quite important for me to be understood.’

Mr Juncker, who is from Luxembourg, speaks several languages and often uses English at international events.