Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2016-03-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people are employed by the EU, including the European Court of Justice; and at what annual cost.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

In 2015, the EU and its institutions including the European Court of Justice employed 40,106 permanent members of staff. Further information on staff levels and administrative expenditure is available on the European Commission’s website.

In 2013, the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), delivered a real-terms cut to the seven year EU budget framework for the first time in history and this deal continues to bring discipline to annual EU spending. As part of this deal, the UK secured some important reforms to administrative expenditure, including: a cash freeze to EU institutions staff salaries in 2013 and 2014, an increase in the retirement age for EU officials and a commitment by all EU institutions to reduce headcounts by 5% by the end of 2017.