Cyclic Hotline
25th Jun 2001, 00:04
Eurocrats get own planes to 'save cash' on travel Sunday Times
Nicholas Rufford
EUROPEAN Union leaders are to get two Learjets to fly them to international meetings and summits at a cost of £2,000 an hour. The jets will form the core of a new EU airline for the use of senior officials.
The decision has outraged some MEPs, who have dubbed the scheme "Prodair", after Romano Prodi, the commission president, and say the aircraft are unnecessary status symbols.
The EU says it is cheaper to charter a private fleet than to pay for the growing number of trips on air "taxis" - planes hired for single journeys - by frequent travellers, including Prodi and Chris Patten, the head of external affairs.
A Belgian leasing company has been selected as the preferred bidder for the first three-year contract, worth £1m or more. The most luxurious plane in the fleet, the Learjet 45, has leather seats, a bar, phone and fax facilities.
The private planes will be used most frequently by Xavier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, who sceptics say is competing with Patten to fly the most miles. Last week Solana was twice in Macedonia and in Sweden, France, Holland and Israel. In one 11-day stretch this year, Patten also travelled twice to Macedonia, then Sweden, France, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay.
Patten is in charge of the EU's £7 billion aid programme, but may have left himself open to criticism that he is sending out the wrong message. "It is a case of talk poor by day, live rich by night," said one MEP.
Nicholas Rufford
EUROPEAN Union leaders are to get two Learjets to fly them to international meetings and summits at a cost of £2,000 an hour. The jets will form the core of a new EU airline for the use of senior officials.
The decision has outraged some MEPs, who have dubbed the scheme "Prodair", after Romano Prodi, the commission president, and say the aircraft are unnecessary status symbols.
The EU says it is cheaper to charter a private fleet than to pay for the growing number of trips on air "taxis" - planes hired for single journeys - by frequent travellers, including Prodi and Chris Patten, the head of external affairs.
A Belgian leasing company has been selected as the preferred bidder for the first three-year contract, worth £1m or more. The most luxurious plane in the fleet, the Learjet 45, has leather seats, a bar, phone and fax facilities.
The private planes will be used most frequently by Xavier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, who sceptics say is competing with Patten to fly the most miles. Last week Solana was twice in Macedonia and in Sweden, France, Holland and Israel. In one 11-day stretch this year, Patten also travelled twice to Macedonia, then Sweden, France, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay.
Patten is in charge of the EU's £7 billion aid programme, but may have left himself open to criticism that he is sending out the wrong message. "It is a case of talk poor by day, live rich by night," said one MEP.