EU staff 'totals 170,000'

EU employs far more than it claims, a think tank has said

Monday, 11, Aug 2008 12:01

The EU has more employees than are in the UK army, a think tank has claimed.

A study from think tank Open Europe found the number of people working for EU institutions has reached 170,000 people – roughly the same as the population as Swansea, and more than in the UK army (107,000).

The Commission has previously claimed the EU employs around 23,000 people, "fewer than the number of staff employed by a typical medium-sized city council in Europe."

Open Europe analyst Nick Cosgrove said: "The Commission desperately tries to play down just how many people are now working for the EU.

"They are extremely secretive about the number of people who are working to churn out regulations.

"The difficulty of finding out how many officials are working there reflects the EU's wider problem with a lack of transparency."

Figures from the European Commission about the number of staff are misleading, the group said, as they only refer to the civil servants working in the Commission not other institutions, agencies and committees to help make the EU function.

The actual number of individuals required to run the EU is in fact closer to 170,000 - more than seven times the 23,000 figure sometimes cited by the Commission, Open Europe claimed.