Editing European Parliament (section)

==Annual costs==
According to the European Parliament website, the annual parliament budget for 2021 was €2.064 billion, which corresponds to 1.2% of [[Budget of the European Union|EU budget]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Parliament's budget |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/organisation-and-rules/parliaments-budget |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=europarl.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref> The main cost categories were:
* 45%{{snd}} staff (staff expenses, contract agents, linguistic services)
* 22%{{snd}} operational costs (buildings, IT, administration)
* 26%{{snd}} political activities (members, activities of political groups, parties and foundations)
* 6%{{snd}} communications

According to a European Parliament study prepared in 2013, the Strasbourg seat costs an extra €103 million over maintaining a single location and according to the Court of Auditors an additional €5 million is related to travel expenses caused by having two seats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/faq/19/why-does-parliament-move-between-brussels-and-strasbourg|title=Why does Parliament move between Brussels and Strasbourg?|website=europarl.europa.eu}}</ref>{{EP election results graph (percentage)}}

As a comparison, the German lower house of parliament ([[Bundestag]]) is estimated to cost €517 million in total for 2018, for a parliament with 709 members.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article169033905/So-viel-zahlen-die-Deutschen-fuer-die-Demokratie.html|title=So viel zahlen die Deutschen für die Demokratie|newspaper=Die Welt|date=26 September 2017|last1=Eckert|first1=Daniel}}</ref> The [[British House of Commons]] reported total annual costs in 2016-2017 of £249 million (€279 million). It had 650 seats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-expenditure/Admin%20Annual%20Accounts/AdminAnnualReport1617.pdf|title=Annual Report and Accounts 2016–17, p. 70|last=House of Commons|website=parliament.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718205626/https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-expenditure/Admin%20Annual%20Accounts/AdminAnnualReport1617.pdf|archive-date=18 July 2018|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

According to ''The Economist'', the European Parliament costs more than the British, French and German parliaments combined. A quarter of the costs is estimated to be related to translation and interpretation costs (c. €460 million) and the double seats are estimated to add an additional €180 million a year.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2014/05/15/elected-yet-strangely-unaccountable|title=Elected, yet strangely unaccountable|last=Economist|date=May 15, 2014|newspaper=The Economist}}</ref> For a like-for-like comparison, these two cost blocks can be excluded.

On 2 July 2018, MEPs rejected proposals to tighten the rules around the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/strasbourg-european-parliament-meps-reject-scrutiny-of-expenses/|title=MEPs reject scrutiny of their expenses|date=July 3, 2018|website=Politico}}</ref> which "is a controversial €4,416 per month payment that MEPs are given to cover office and other expenses, but they are not required to provide any evidence of how the money is spent".<ref>[https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-european-parliament-nigel-farage-daniel-hannan-british-members-of-european-parliament-to-bag-lucrative-post-brexit-pay-out/ MAÏA DE LA BAUME, ''British MEPs to bag lucrative post-Brexit payout'', Politico, 9 Jan. 2019].</ref>