Massive increases of up to 38 per cent in European Union bureaucrat expense entitlements has been likened to staff bank accounts “being stuffed full of Euros from put-upon taxpayers” by a Danish MEP Anders Vistisen.
The boost to EU staff daily allowances and hotel expenses was published on May 12 by the European Commission comes under a revised scale for missions by officials and other servants of the EU in member states, voted in late February 2025.
The new scale grants staff a hefty allowance increase, depending on their nationality and based on Eurostat’s report on the evolution of the prices of hotels, restaurants and catering services.
Danish MEP Anders Vistisen, chief whip of the Patriots for Europe group, was furious at the hike in allowances. He told Brussels Signal there was a disconnect between the financial struggles of ordinary Europeans and the lavish allowances enjoyed by EU staff.
“While people are suffering across Europe because of the cost of living, high house prices, and loss of security caused by EU open borders, EU staff bank accounts are being stuffed full of Euros from put-upon taxpayers,” he said.
“There is no sector of the normal workforce that gets 17, 24, or 38 per cent daily or hotel allowance increases. The European Commission is happy to cover their little minions with taxpayers’ money.”
For French European staffers, maximum allowances for hotels went up from €180 to €212, an increase of 17.78 per cent. Their daily allowances rose from €102 to €127, an increase of 24.51 per cent.
For Danish staffers, the maximum allowance for hotels went from €173 to €208, up 20.33 per cent. Their daily allowances went from €124 to €172, an increase of 38.71 per cent.
The controversy extends beyond just allowances. An analysis of European Union employment data reveals that a significant number of EU officials earn more than many of the bloc’s elected leaders.
Earlier this month, British newspaper The Telegraph reported that a third of the European Commission’s 30,000 officials receive annual salaries of €113,000 or more. Their pay is further boosted by low tax status and generous expat allowances, all funded by European taxpayers.
Middle managers at grade AST9 or AD9 – common starting points – receive a basic monthly wage of €10,084 and an expatriation allowance of €1,682, while only paying €1,139 in tax. There are at least 2,863 commission officials hired at this level, each earning more than the leaders of several Eastern European nations.
MEP Vistisen told the newspaper: “It’s shocking that so much hard work by taxpayers goes into funding the perks, privileges, and astronomically high wages of cushy-number Eurocrats.”
“The EU is a racket with the aim to take money off ordinary workers in order to hand it to overpaid and overprivileged Brussels bureaucrats. Follow the money and find that in the EU, it’s the bureaucrats, not the elected democrats, who really matter. That is certainly the story of the pay scales.”
In April, approximately 66,000 employees with European institutions received their seventh pay rise in just three years.
This included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who now earns €34,800 per month.
A coalition of MEPs has secured the 180 signatures required to trigger a vote on the creation of a new committee to investigate corruption and accountability within the EU’s institutions. https://t.co/HzEyb3hvSv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 8, 2025
