EU: UK Official Staff Question Asked by Lord Wallace of Saltaire To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the proportion of officials from the United Kingdom working in European Union institutions compared with other member states; and whether they have any proposals in that regard. [HL1513] The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead) The European Commission’s statistical bulletin for January 2010 showed that the UK’s overall percentage of Commission staff is 5.2 per cent. I attach a table of information outlining the proportions for other member states’ nationals. The Government consider that the percentages for member states’ representation in other EU institutions, where statistics are not presently available, will be broadly similar. The Government believe that UK nationals are under-represented in the EU institutions, and are undertaking a programme of activities to resolve this. This includes the re-launch of the European Fast Stream, better co-ordination of secondments of UK officials to the EU institutions, and work to identify and address issues which may deter UK nationals who are considering a career in the EU. -------------------------------------- |Member State |% of Commission staff| -------------------------------------- |Austria |1.7 | -------------------------------------- |Belgium |19.8 | -------------------------------------- |Bulgaria |1.4 | -------------------------------------- |Cyprus |0.4 | -------------------------------------- |Czech Republic|1.8 | -------------------------------------- |Denmark |1.8 | -------------------------------------- |Estonia |0.8 | -------------------------------------- |Finland |2.3 | -------------------------------------- |France |10.1 | -------------------------------------- |Germany |8 | -------------------------------------- |Greece |3.7 | -------------------------------------- |Hungary |2.4 | -------------------------------------- |Ireland |2.2 | -------------------------------------- |Italy |10 | -------------------------------------- |Latvia |0.8 | -------------------------------------- |Lithuania |1.1 | -------------------------------------- |Luxembourg |0.9 | -------------------------------------- |Malta |0.5 | -------------------------------------- |Netherlands |2.9 | -------------------------------------- |Poland |4.7 | -------------------------------------- |Portugal |3 | -------------------------------------- |Romania |2 | -------------------------------------- |Slovakia |1.3 | -------------------------------------- |Slovenia |0.9 | -------------------------------------- |Spain |7.2 | -------------------------------------- |Sweden |2.3 | -------------------------------------- |UK |5.2 | -------------------------------------- |Non-EU |0.1 | --------------------------------------