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0 points9887473y ago0 comments

Did you mean 740k EUR per person? I can't find the whole budget right now, but it costs EU parliament over 100 million just to move it back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg (which is totally pointless and is only done so that France can feel important). They also apparently spend 1 billion per year on translators.

EDIT: I guess I offended some French people, hence the downvotes :)

0 comments

nightpool3y ago

Apparently this is correct:

> In [2014], the European Court of Auditors (ECA) carried out a further analysis of the potential savings if all meetings were held in Brussels, following a request from the Parliament. Their estimate of the cost of the monthly move is 113.800.000 euro.

(From an EJTA fact checking website, which labeled a separate 200MM euro number as "mostly false" https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-false-travelling-cir...)

manholio3y ago

> They also apparently spend 1 billion per year on translators.

Now that the UK is out of the Union, it would be nice for sanity to prevail and most of those translators be made redundant. Except for drafting official multi-language legal documents, the bulk of the proceedings can go on in English, and EMPs that require translation services should request them from their own countries.

It will never happen, but one can surely dream.

ignaloidas3y ago

EU publishes tons of written material, and basically all of it has to be translated. Costs for translating the proceedings are very likely less than 1% of total costs for translation.

manholio3y ago

> EU publishes tons of written material, and basically all of it has to be translated.

But only legislative text needs to have translated versions officially recognized as equivalent. The rest can be produced and published in English, and member countries can translate them as required, if necessary. It's a huge expense that exists only to placate French linguistic nationalism.

1 more reply

FridayoLeary3y ago

Sanity is not one of the hallmarks of the monster that is the EU bureaucracy.

Fiahil3y ago

> EDIT: I guess I offended some French people, hence the downvotes :)

Yes.

But I have to recognise, they could - at least - hand out "free" train tickets to most of the Parliament staff. Not just between Brussels and Strasbourg, but everywhere in the EU.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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nightpool3y ago

Apparently this is correct:

(From an EJTA fact checking website, which labeled a separate 200MM euro number as "mostly false" https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-false-travelling-cir...)

manholio3y ago

> They also apparently spend 1 billion per year on translators.

It will never happen, but one can surely dream.

ignaloidas3y ago

EU publishes tons of written material, and basically all of it has to be translated. Costs for translating the proceedings are very likely less than 1% of total costs for translation.

manholio3y ago

> EU publishes tons of written material, and basically all of it has to be translated.

1 more reply

FridayoLeary3y ago

Sanity is not one of the hallmarks of the monster that is the EU bureaucracy.

Fiahil3y ago

> EDIT: I guess I offended some French people, hence the downvotes :)

Yes.

But I have to recognise, they could - at least - hand out "free" train tickets to most of the Parliament staff. Not just between Brussels and Strasbourg, but everywhere in the EU.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse