The European Union has ratified its 2018 budget, totaling €160.1 billion ($188.5 billion) in commitments which, according to the Anadolu Post, is an increase of 0.2 percent from 2017. The Post reports that “The biggest portion of the budget – €11.2 billion – will be allocated to the EU’s research and innovation programs; this is an increase of 8.4 percent compared to 2017.”
However, the EU is also known for wasting taxpayer money on things that don’t really make much sense, which makes you wonder exactly what it means by “research and innovation programs.” In fact, Britain recently gave €177 million to the EU to spend on “aid projects” that included yoga classes in India, juggling lessons in Tanzania, and help for Caribbean coconut farmers. With spending habits like this, it’s no wonder Brexit is happening. Here are some more examples of wasteful EU spending.
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RoDyMan, a robot that can make pizza, is a five-year project that is funded with €2.5 million in grants from the European Research Council, an EU agency that funds scientific and technological research.
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In 2015, the EU launched the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa which was projected to cost €2.96 billion for projects aimed at managing and reducing migration from more than 25 countries.
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The European Parliament requested a €1.5 million transfer for its translation budget to ward off a total of €3.7 million of overspending on top of the €8.2 million budget this year, to provide translations for reports (the largest expense being Irish) and for a “vanity” website.
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The EU chief spent more than “€2,500 a head” on return flights that the European Commission tried to keep secret. Documents revealed the EU’s 27 Commissioners (besides Britain) spent €452,000 on travel expenses in January and February 2016 alone.
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The EU spent up to €90,000 on a bizarre SimCity-style computer game to teach kids about taxes.
The Eurozone’s overall level of government debt is currently over 89 percent of GDP.