EU to spend €40m-plus on launch of quangos
The EU will spend over €40m setting up three new quangos next year, despite massive spending cuts across Europe.
The total budget for the EU's network of agencies and committees will rise by 8 per cent in 2011 to around €2.4bn -- an increase of €180m.
Hundreds of staff are being recruited for the three new bodies being set up to oversee banking and financial institutions, raising fears among financial markets of damaging new regulations.
The European Banking Authority, to be based in London but answerable to Brussels, has a budget of €13m, and the European Securities and Markets Authority, based in Paris, will have a budget of €14m. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority in Frankfurt is expected to cost €1.1m.
There are currently 47 EU quangos, compared with just two in 1990. Their cost has risen threefold since 2005.
©Telegraph
- Nick Meo
Originally published in
