WRITTEN QUESTION E-3637/98

by Richard Corbett (PSE) to the Commission

(3 December 1998)

Subject: Number of Commission officials

Could the Commission please indicate the number of Commission officials there are for every million EU citizens and an estimate of the number of national civil servants working for the government of each Member State per million inhabitants of that state?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(13 January 1999)

The total population of the Union is roughly 370 million. If this figure is compared with the number of officials in the Commission's establishment plan, i.e. 19 830 (16 666 on the operating budget and 3 164 on the research budget), a ratio of 53,6 officials to one million inhabitants is obtained.

As far as the ratio for the Member States themselves is concerned, the Commission does not have comparable statistical data on numbers of civil servants and is therefore unable to answer the second part of the question put by the Honourable Member.