Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, said EU leaders had agreed to ‘re-evaluate’ its agenda after voters ‘sent a strong message’ at the weekend

The EU sparked fury by demanding an extra £500million from British taxpayers – just hours after claiming it would take heed of damning election results.

The European Commission was accused of ‘living on a different planet’ after asking member countries for a £3.8billion cash increase to its budget.



Around an eighth of this will come from UK pockets, with the cash going on projects to help drive down Europe's chronic youth unemployment - as well as £200million for crisis-hit Ukraine including £60million from British taxpayers.



The astonishing demand came just hours after Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, said EU leaders had agreed to ‘re-evaluate’ its agenda after voters ‘sent a strong message’ at the weekend.

He announced a round of consultations with the leaders of the 28 EU members on future policies such as reducing the amount of regulation.

The apparent climb down came a day after David Cameron demanded change – saying the EU had become ‘too big, too bossy and too interfering’.

He travelled to Brussels on Tuesday to demand the union be dramatically scaled back, and to warn fellow leaders not to ‘shrug off’ the view of the European people that Brussels should hand back power to national governments.

At a dinner in the Belgian capital that night, he won the first skirmish in his battle to prevent arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker taking the Commission’s top job when it falls vacant in the autumn.

Britain's net contribution to the EU more than doubled between 2007 and last year - when taxpayers handed over more than £9billion to Brussels

But, despite the apparent successes, the Commission returned to form just hours later – by demanding its £110billion budget go up by £3.8billion to pay for youth employment projects and regional policy and extra help for Ukraine.

Britain is one of the largest contributors to the union, meaning that around £500million would come from the UK.

The request comes just days after European election results in which millions voted for parties opposed to ever closer union or the entire concept of the EU.

UKIP came top of the poll in Britain, while there were successes for such parties in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Greece.

Nigel Farage was all smiles during a meeting of leaders of European Parliament's political groups in Brussels yesterday

The claim for more cash from Britain comes after David Cameron told officials Brussels had become too big and too bossy

One European diplomat expressed incredulity at the Commission’s cash demands, saying: ‘What a smart way to react to the concerns of Europe’s voters: let’s ask them for more money.

‘The Commission must live on another planet if they think that Europe can reconnect with people by raiding their wallets,' the diplomat told the Telegraph.

A spokesman for the British government said: ‘At a time when countries across Europe continue to take difficult decisions to deal with deficits, the European Commission should not be asking Europe's taxpayers for yet more money.’

The amount that Britain pours into the EU has more than tripled over the last decade, up from £2.9billion in 2002 to £9.5billion in 2012.

European leaders – urged on by Britain – reacted to this by cutting EU spending between 2014 and 2020.

But the small print means national governments can push spending up during the course of the year by claiming there is not enough money in the coffers to pay for previously agreed projects.

A spokesman for the European Commission said: ‘Member states agreed to frontload youth employment and science from 2015 to 2014, which means more resources are needed.