David
Sumberg MEP
Date: 17/09/2008
EU must slash its bloated "army" of bureaucrats.
North West MEP David Sumberg is calling on the European Union to slash down its workforce after fresh research found that 170,000 people now work for EU institutions.
Mr Sumberg said in total there are far more people working for the EU (170,000) than in the UK army (107,000). As well as those who work for the EU directly, the study by the think tank Open Europe, found that many more officials work for the EU indirectly overseas or on committees.
“The European Commission claims that the EU's bureaucratic employees are "fewer than the number of staff employed by a typical medium-sized city council in Europe." But when the full picture is revealed, in fact, the EU employs the equivalent of the entire population of a medium-sized European city. This is unacceptable. These people are not elected, and cannot be held accountable by ordinary citizens. But they have a huge effect on our lives, affecting everything from the price of electricity and food to the way we run the NHS. There is an urgent need for real pressure to be exerted on the EU to slash back on its horrendously bloated army of bureaucrats.”
The study finds that the EU now employs more people than the combined total of staff working for the Treasury (1,451), the Home Office (25,299), the Department for Work and Pensions (107,998), the Department for Health (3,467), the Foreign Office (16,169), the Department for International Development (1,612), the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (809), and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (7,854).