EU auditors found the European Union Council splashed the six-figure sum in 2018 on 4,000 bottles of luxury champagne in order to entertain themselves and guests – at the cost of you. According to the documents, the unelected EU chiefs spent a further £50,000 on a lavish end of year party, which included a three-course meal and open bar for up to 3,000 staff. An extravagant ‘team-bonding’ trip to a Belgium theme park totalling £40,000 was also signed off by the EU council.
To ensure the europhiles were comfortable at work, a further £25,000 was splashed out to rent furniture.
Brexit Party MEP Michael Heaver hit out at the spending and insisted it was “rubbing the taxpayers’ nose in it”.
Mr Heaver said: “To spend these ridiculous sums on things like champagne, theme park visits and boozy parties really is rubbing the taxpayers’ nose in it.”
Meanwhile over in Strasbourg, auditors found the European Parliament were equally as thriftless with public funds.
Yesterday the EU Parliament signed off its expenditure which included an £85,000 relaxation armchair.
In addition, another £30,000 of public funds were wasted on the theme park trip to southern Belgium.
Meanwhile, a further £15,000 was spent on a shooting range rental.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the UK’s net contribution to the EU budget in 2018 was £11 billion.
In its annual report released earlier this month, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) estimated €4 billion of EU funds were misspent last year.
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An EU Council spokesman said: “The administrative expenditures are meant to cover the functioning of the institution.
“This includes spending related to staff and working conditions of staff and to the Council business.
“An official lunch/dinner is usually a component of most of our high-level meetings, hence some of our spending related to catering and beverage.”