EU Commission president racks up €649,336 in travel expenses
In 2012, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso racked up travel expenses three times as high as the EU's head of foreign policy Catherine Ashton, according to a freedom of information request filed by EUobserver.
Barroso's travel expenses in 2012 amounted to an eye-watering €649,336.72, more than double the expenses he filed in 2013. Former Labour politician Catherine Ashton came a distant second accumulating €280,962.69 of expenses.
However, in 2013, Ashton managed to land first place for taxpayer funded travel, with €468.728,77 spent, followed by Barroso on€262.058,89. Not to be left behind, EUobserver report that economics commissioner Olli Rehn accrued over €100,000 in travel costs.
Italy's Antonio Tajani joined the jet-setting commissioners in accruing costs of over €100,000 a year, as did the commissioners for energy, trade, humanitarian aid, neighbourhood and enlargement, regional policy and climate change.
The more Spartan members of the commission who didn't manage to break the €100,000 mark included transport commissioner Siim Kallas, who cost taxpayers €40,364.01 in 2012 and Croatia's Neven Mimica, with €27.695,89 spent on travel in 2013.
All together, EU commissioners spent €6.7m on travel in 2012 and 2013. Attempting to explain the extravagant expenditure a Barroso spokesman said that 2012 was a "particularly intense year regarding international commitments of the president."
The G8 and Nato summits in the US, as well as a G20 summit in Los Cabos were among the reasons given for the amount of money spent.
However, strangely enough even though the EU is represented by both Barroso and EU council president Herman Van Rompuy at international summits, the spokesman said Barroso travels on his own.
However, It is not just International summits that enlarged the Commission President's travel bill. In July 2012, Barroso traveled to Israel and Palestine. The need for the trip is puzzling since Ashton was traveling to the region twice that year.
Barroso also traveled back to his native Portugal several times, once to give a speech at the Catholic University of Lisbon and another to attend the launch of the Social Innovation prize Diogo Vasconcelos.
Beyond travel expenses, EUobserver reported that costs related to guests invited to the college of commissioners reached a staggering €139,790.49 in 2012 and €98,837.21 the following year, with most of the money being lavished on luncheons with visiting governments.
For individuals, Barroso once again topped the table, costing EU taxpayers €70,647.96 in 2012, close to double as much as in 2013.