GETTY Scores of Brussels bureaucrats and EU Court of Justice judges receive more than the PM’s salary

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Scores of Brussels bureaucrats and EU Court of Justice judges receive more than the Prime Minister’s annual salary of £142,500. And on average, they pay £50,000 less tax than they would if they lived in the UK. In total, the investigation estimated that their cossetted lifestyles cost European taxpayers more than £50million last year. The lavish salaries, pension pots and perks of the Brussels elite were laid bare in a dossier entitled “The EU Rich List” compiled by the UK Independence Party’s Parliamentary Resource Unit and released last night. It is expected to intensify calls for Britain to quit the EU ahead of the in-or-out referendum expected next year.

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said: “For Eurocrats, austerity is always something that happens to other people. “But it it’s outrageous that they retain their comfort while taxpayers still suffer.” Using 2014 figures, the dossier showed that the pensions of the top 200 best paid EU officials are set to cost European taxpayers a total of £4.5million a year. It found that, on average, officials in the EU Rich List earned 10 times more than a typical worker in the UK. The most expensive EU official named on the list was Vassilios Skouris, who was the president of the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice until last October.

GETTY The lavish salaries, pension pots and perks of the Brussels elite were laid bare by UKIP

GETTY The investigation estimated that EU officials lifestyles cost European taxpayers more than £50m

For Eurocrats, austerity is always something that happens to other people Ukip MP Douglas Carswell

His basic salary was £241,460. Once his annual benefits and the cost of his pension were totted up, the report estimated that his annual cost to EU taxpayers was around £402,020. Second on the list was José L. Da Cruz Vilaça, a judge in the Court of Justice. His basic salary was £196,843 but adding annual benefits and pension contributions to the total took the figure to around £360,350. The top six on the rich list are all judges who serve in the Court of Justice, the European General Court or the EU Civil Service Tribunal. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, was only at seventh place on the list.

GETTY It found that officials in the EU Rich List earned 10 times more than a typical worker in the UK

Mr Juncker earned a basic salary of £241,460 in 2014. With benefits and annual pension contributions, the figure reached an estimate £342,505. The investigation looked at the EU’s 2014 annual accounts and EU Staff Regulation documents to tot up the salary and benefit totals. As a result, the figures do not take into account an inflation-busting 2.4 per cent that EU civil servants began receiving this week. Many are in line for backdated payments and so will get lump sums running into thousands of pounds. The Ukip dossier, compiled by researcher Tim Philpott, said: “The Euroepan Union has imposed draconian austerity measures on member states. “EU diktats are forcing national governments to reduce public spending and make efficiences.