A total of 1 million euros (US$1.4 million) was spent every day during the French presidency of the EU, one of the costliest in the union’s history, it emerged on Monday.
France spent an estimated 171 million euros during the six months that it held the role, compared with an average of 70 million euros to 80 million euros, the country’s national audit office said. The cost is significantly greater than previous French presidencies of the EU, estimated at 14 million euros in 1995 and 57 million euros in 2000.
A dinner for European heads of state to mark the beginning of the Mediterranean summit at the Grand Palais in Paris in July last year cost 1 million euros of the summit’s total cost of 16.6 million euros. Nearly 4.4 million euros was spent on installing, cleaning and disassembling the event; the podium cost 301,208 euros, gardening costs amounted to 194,977 euros and 91,456 euros was spent on the carpet alone, Le Figaro reported.
The head of the French Senate’s finance committee, Jean Arthuis, said the huge costs were a result of poor management and an excessively ambitious program.
“Hyperactive” French President Nicolas Sarkozy had been praised for his diplomatic efforts to tackle the economic crisis and broker peace between Russia and Georgia, but the success of the period was not down to the vast amount spent, he said.
“Not all the 500 events organized by the French presidency were essential, and their number did not contribute to the French success, which was based on two or three events, like the handling of the financial crisis or war in Georgia,” Arthuis said.
Despite the large sums spent, the overall bill was comparable with that of other big countries holding the rotating presidency, such as Germany in 2007, Arthuis said.
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