Revealed: EU plans to ‘indulge’ £535,000 of taxpayers’ money upgrading a Paris cottage

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President Antonio Tajani (left) and the EU Parliament’s top staffer Secretary General Klaus Welle

According to a document issued by the top staffer, Secretary-General Klaus Welle, senior MEPs agreed earlier this month to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds modernising the house of Jean Monnet – one of the founding fathers of the Brussels bloc.

The EU authorised Mr Welle to purchase the land because it is of “strategic interest” but critics see this as a waste of money.

German MEP and budget spokesman for the European Conservatives and Reformists group, Bernd Kölmel, said: “With Britain’s budget contributions soon to come to an end, the EU should be taking steps now to cut spending, not to increase it.

“The EU is clearly unwilling to put an end to unnecessary and indulgent spending. Instead of preparing ourselves for the future, we’re still spending money like we did 30 years ago.”

A formal offer for the plot will be made soon by Parliament and one possible use for the land is to build a “small guesthouse” on it to accommodate conference guests.

When asked about this, Kölmel said Parliament was “feathering their own nest.”

The house is also a museum and the idea is to boost visitor numbers to make Mr Monnet’s “extraordinary way of thinking and negotiating better known to younger generations”.

A Parliament official, who didn’t want to be named, said: “After having spent a lot of money on real estate, nothing will stop Welle from building a real estate empire … Do we really need to buy land for €300,000?”

Mr Welle is also considering whether to renovate the Parliament’s Brussels home by either refurbishing or totally rebuilding it.

It was revealed this year that the Parliament and the will splash out £5.3 million on a “House of Europe” building in central Paris and spend £11 million refurbishing it.

The European Court of Auditors will examine the Parliament’s real estate policy in a report to be published in the second half of next year.

According to a statement sent to Politico, the auditors will focus on the five biggest institutions: Parliament, Council, Commission, European Court of Justice and European Central Bank.

They will “examine whether the EU spending on office accommodation is managed efficiently”.

The statement said: “The auditors select their audits based on their assessment of the main risks to both EU spending and policy delivery.

“We have also taken account of the suggestions made to us by our stakeholders, especially the European Parliament.”

The Parliament has owned the Monnet house in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne near Paris since 1982.

The building is used for meetings, training sessions and seminars but it is also a museum for Monnet, who laid the intellectual groundwork for the European project.

It is proposed to build a small library, a cinema room, an interactive timeline of Monnet’s life and work and an interactive application displaying all members of the .

The document added: “Jean Monnet’s vision for Europe has not lost its relevance and it would be of great value to make a larger audience aware of this, as well as his achievements and his extraordinary statesmanship.”

Welle has not issued a comment on the matter.

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The European Court of Auditors will examine the Parliament’s real estate policy

It was revealed this year that the unelected Commission spent an eye-watering £500,000 on foreign trips within two months, which Access Info believe is only the tip of the “iceberg”.

Staff in the EU institutions do not pay national income tax, but pay a “community tax” that goes directly back into the bloc’s budget.

The rate is often far lower than income tax in Belgium, which is 50 per cent on wages more than £34,000.

According to the European Parliament, 751 MEPs earn £86,700 a year. But, after the community tax and a health insurance contribution, they earn £71,599.

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Jean Monnet laid the intellectual groundwork for the European project

That is a 17.4 per cent community tax and insurance payment. Britain levies a 40 per cent tax rate on salaries of £45,001-£150,000.

Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, said: “In Euroland the unaccountable bureaucrats think that income tax is just for the little people who should just shut up and pay up.

“The quicker we get out the less money we pay to these people, many of whom in the middle ranks get paid even more than MEPs.”