EU diplomatic service ‘challenging Foreign Office’
By politics.co.uk staff
The Foreign Office is being supplanted by the EU’s own diplomatic service, according to a report published today.
The report, by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, highlights some startling costs attached to the business of running the EU’s diplomatic service. Excluding wages, it found the EU’s international affairs programme has a budget of £3.4 billion per annum.
EU ambassadors can earn up to £244,000, and receive perks like expat and entertainment allowances, adoption grants and own-car grants.
As the EU’s diplomatic service has grown, so has its property portfolio, which is now worth 55 million, according to the group.
Dr Lee Rotherham, EU policy analyst at the TaxPayer’s Alliance, said: “It is astonishing that British ministers are still in denial about the way this harms our international standing.
British taxpayers are funding EU diplomats to supplant our own Foreign Office around the world.”
“The EU has its own agenda that is often in conflict with British national interests, but they are still pursuing it using our money,” he added
Sir Antony Acland, a former ambassador to Washington, praised the timeliness of the report and said “members of the public will be surprised at just how active the EU’s own diplomatic corps already is today.”
