[rich_sasha]

How does the cost of the Brussels administration compare to, say, the US federal administration? A spot-checked LLM answer tells me, as fraction of GDP:

- EU: 1%

- US: 24%

- China: 35%

That is quite a favourable comparison for Europe, I'd say.

EDIT if anything, staring at these numbers, one might conclude the EU is not spending enough in general, in particular on innovation. Quite the stark contrast to being a money grab, IMO.

[rs_rs_rs_rs_rs]

Comparison does not work, EU does very little compared to what the US/China administrations do, you'll have to add the cost of all the countries administration too.

[rich_sasha]

The claim was that the EU is a money grab for Brussels time wasters. The cost of the EU bureaucracy is minimal.

What the member states spend, and if they do it well etc. is a totally separate question.

[s0sa]

How are you arriving at these percentages? Show your work.

[rich_sasha]

How nicely you ask. I arrived at them by division.

Since you ask so nicely, it gives me pleasure to provide further details:

- This link discusses the 2025 EU budget: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-annual-budget... there are two numbers. It is unclear if the budget is the sum, or if one number includes the other. But let's add them for an annual budget of approx 250bn EUR

- EU GDP is around 20tn EUR according to this Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union (the nominal number)

- using division I arrive at 1.25% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_(mathematics)

For the US:

- This webpage: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder... puts the federal spending at $6.66tn (hmm)

- Wikipedia again puts US GDP at around $30tn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States

- We arrive at federal budget spending of 22%

I'm not claiming these are the best or most up to date statistics, but this is a roughly 20x difference between US and Europe, and I understand the 2025 EU budget is particularly large.

The notion that EU bureaucracy is particularly expensive has no foundation in fact, AFAICT.

[s0sa]

As I suspected, there isn’t much there. What about individual member state expenditures (perhaps even limited to spending on things required by EU law)? OP’s point may have been silly, but this really isn’t any better.

[rich_sasha]

Oh great oracle, I bow to your superior thinking.

Might you share then how the EU is a money grab for Brussels Eurocrats? With at least the level of detail you got from me?

[ghaff]

And add the per country spend that almost certainly exceeds per capita EU spend.

[Muromec]

Brussels isn't even a nice city, what is this even about.

[seydor]

that's just the size of the eu budget but that's a fraction of what EUrocrats control via regulation and via their sovereignity in member states. EU is not a federal state government like the US