A £7m TV channel in 22 languages and the Second World War airbrushed from European history at a £44m museum... eurocrats are spending like never befor

By James Slack
17 April 2012

As the euro crisis grips the continent, threatening the economies of a number of countries in the bloc, self-serving eurocrats have seen fit to splurge almost £50million of taxpayers' money on the 'House of European History' where the Second World War is known as the European Civil War and 'Year Zero' for the continent is set at 1946, when the forerunner to the EU was formed. Here James slack reports from the Brussels La-La-Land where money is being wasted on vanity projects like never before...

One thing that symbolises the European elite’s sense of delusion as they cling to the dream of an unviable single currency is the grandiose decision to build a House Of European History.

At a cost of £44million, eurocrats have invested in this project, which is intended to promote ‘an awareness of European identity’.

There is one problem, though. The governments of the EU countries are unable to agree over fundamental aspects of the showcase museum in Brussels.

They have been arguing, for example, over diverging interpretations of events such as World War II — which EU enthusiasts risibly call the ‘European Civil War’.

Farcically, it’s been decided to omit any exhibit on which agreement cannot be reached.

And because of their differing views about World War II, the museum will begin with an EU ‘year zero’ of 1946.

Martin Callanan, the European Conservatives’ group leader in Brussels, has highlighted the madness of such a narcissistic project — particularly when Europe is in a deep economic crisis.

‘The European Parliament should not be in the business of running museums,’ he says. ‘Even in good times, the money would be a waste, but during these hard times it is scandalous.
Disaster

‘Even if we put the exorbitant cost to one side, differing perspectives of European history mean the museum’s content must be confined to post-World War II.

‘It is hard to see how this will be an objective history museum, rather than a centre for propaganda about the EU.’

And Belgian centre-right MEP Derk Jan Eppink has said: ‘No one wants to be involved in this when people can’t even agree what happened in the last war. It is self-aggrandisement at the expense of taxpayers.’

But then this is just another example of the out-of-control juggernaut of mis-spending of British taxpayers’ money that is happening in Brussels.

Eurocrats continue to pour endless amounts of taxpayers’ money into propping up the collapsing political EU ‘project’.

On a visit to Brussels in recent days, I was shocked to see just how detached from the real world they are, even as disaster unfolds across the Continent.
Ignored: There is no mention of the billions of euros that the European Central Bank (pictured) has poured into propping up the single currency

I heard barely a mention in the European Parliament of the Greek sovereign debt crisis.

There were no debates about the 386 billion euros committed — so far — to save Greece, Ireland and Portugal from bankruptcy or of ways to prevent the debt contagion spreading to Spain, as has happened in the past few days.

And there was no discussion of the devastating official figures that show one in ten in the eurozone is unemployed.
Detached: What about the catastrophe of Spain's 50% youth unemployment, which is causing social tensions to boil over?

In some countries, youth unemployment is close to a catastrophic 50 per cent and experts largely agree the eurozone has slipped back into the throttling grip of recession.

Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund warned for the first time that Europe’s debt crisis could trigger a break-up of the eurozone.

Yet the European Parliament sails along like a partying cruise liner, utterly oblivious to the disasters ahead.

In Brussels, the foyers are packed with art exhibitions. In the chamber, debates take place on enlarging the EU to take in still more member states.

While the European dream of a strong single currency evaporates, the only thing that seems to concern MEPs is their own self-importance.

The bars and restaurants surrounding the European Parliament are heaving. Money and drink flow freely. Little wonder.

Staff working for the EU pay tax at a rate of 21 per cent (though our MEPs pay British tax rates, so as not to benefit from this racket).

In stark contrast, the waiters who serve trays full of Belgian beer, steak and frites pay 40 per cent tax.

As one veteran remarked of life in the Brussels bubble: ‘There is no recession here.’

Indeed. But what there is — in spades — is vanity.

Behind the main European Parliament complex, I was directed to a newly opened 65,000 sq ft visitor centre called the ‘Parliamentarium,’ which cost nearly £18 million (the original estimate for it was £14 million).

It is a shrine to excess, packed with expensive technology and featuring welcome messages from every MEP.

It celebrates the creation of the EU with barely a nod to the crisis raging all around. France’s recent history is marked by a picture of the Tour de France, and Germany’s by the famous Berlin address by Barack Obama in 2008.

Interestingly, the image used to represent Britain (which, of course, is not a member of the euro) is much less positive.

We get pictures of the bombings in London in July 2005 and of staff packing boxes at the London arm of Lehman Brothers after its collapse.
Bias? The new £18m 'Parliamentarium' visitor centre represents France with a picture of the Tour de France (above), but shows victims of the 2008 banking collapse for Britain (below)

Sadly, such vanity projects as the House Of European History are visible everywhere — regardless of the crippling debts of individual member states.

Overall, the European Parliament costs £1.69 billion a year to run — an increase of 18 per cent since 2009.

It rents, leases or owns 63 buildings, double the number a decade ago.

Tory MEP Geoffrey Van Orden, who heads the New Direction think-tank, says the main reason for the spiralling cost has been the massive increase in Parliament’s bureaucracy.
Grotesque

Since the enlargement of the EU in 2004 (which increased the number of member states from 15 to 25), staff levels have grown from 3,946 to 6,245 — even though there are only four more MEPs than in 2004.

More than 1,000 European Parliament officials earn more than the MEPs — who themselves are very well paid.

By comparison, just 83 staff members of the British House of Commons are paid more than our MPs.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a TV propaganda channel for the European Parliament, which has only 830 viewers a day, costs £7 million a year to run — largely because most of the shows telecast are translated into 22 languages — including Gaelic, which is spoken by just 80,000 people.

During my visit, it emerged that the head of the EU’s environment agency — a British scientist — has been using public funds for staff training in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

Jacqueline McGlade, a marine biologist, also spent £250,000 to decorate its Copenhagen-based headquarters with plants.

Eurocrats are so used to such grotesque expenditure of other people’s money that barely an eyebrow was raised.

Worse, the eurocrats fail to see that they are doing anything wrong.

Every year, £180 million is squandered on dragging the entire eurocracy to France for a handful of sessions in the Strasbourg Parliament building.
Squandered: The moves to Strasbourg (pictured) cost £180m a year

This happens for no other reason than to placate the French — whose economy benefits from the millions spent in hotels, bars and restaurants by the travelling EU circus.

In a laudable move, Tory MEP Ashley Fox fought to stop the European Parliament travelling to Strasbourg for a single month — a saving to Europe’s taxpayers of an estimated £15million.
Privilege

Yet the plan is being challenged in the European Court of Justice — yet another expensive EU institution.

No one is betting against the court ruling in favour of France, and of the waste continuing unchecked.

Of course, the European Parliament is responsible for only a fraction of the EU’s profligacy.

Cut back! David Cameron has insisted that Britain will not contribute any more to the EU's increased budget

The EU’s entire budget is an obscene £120 billion — with Britain making a net contribution (money we dole out, but do not get back in grants or our historic rebate) of £6.12 billion.

That is £233 for every household in the UK.

Indeed, as research by the MEP Richard Ashworth shows, only Germany pays more, in net terms, for the privilege of being a member of probably the most spendthrift club on earth.

Yet the Brussels establishment still does not recognise the need for the kind of efficiencies being implemented at home by their member states.

Outrageously, the Commission’s budget committee has just demanded an increase in the EU budget of 5 per cent a year for the next seven years.

David Cameron insists that Britain will not pay. But we have heard tough talk over budgets from him before, only for him to cave in, as he did last year over the same issue when he agreed to a 2.9 per cent increase in the budget.

If he finds himself wobbling in negotiations, he should think of the unforgivable act of vanity that is the new House Of European History.

If that doesn’t convince him to stand his ground, then nothing will.

The EU is living in a state of near criminal delusion and waste. History will surely record that its bureaucrats fiddled while the euro dream burned.