European Commission Expenses by Commissioner / [bez imenа] 5877deab-a6bc-477f-82da-0a57fdab3673

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Background information in this news article.

From Roel Geeraedts of RTL Nieuws:

The European Commission disclosed a chart today showing all expenses from 2009 for each Commissioner, broken down into travel costs and external representation expenses. The total amount of expenses adds up to almost 4 million euro's.

Most of the expenses are travelcosts, but the commissioners also spend 355.000 euro on meals and gifts "such as boxes of chocolates, pens, scarves, or flowers", an EC-spokesperson adds.

Some EU commissioners spend far more on travel outside Europe than others. Commissioner Kallas travelled twice outside the EU in 2009, averaging 26.000 euro per trip. Former commissioner Vladimir Spidla travelled a lot cheaper: his three travels outside the EU only cost an average of 2.000 euro, almost the same as the average of the Dutch commissioner Kroes' travel-expenses.

Chairman Barroso spend 730.000 euro on travel, dinners and gifts, and is EC's biggest spender. The Lithuanian commissioner Algirdas Šemeta closes the list; his expenses add up to only 14.553 euro.

After a request based on regulation 1049/2001 (= EU Freedom of Information Act) it took the EU three months to provide the Dutch newsprogram RTL News with the chart showing all expenses for 2009 for each commissioner. EC did not disclose the receipts that add up to the 4 million euro expense-bill. Therefore it is yet unclear on what exactly the public's money was spend by the commissioners.