personnel costs and buildings

The largest overspending perception gap amongst all policy areas was the one of EU spending on administration. The gap was consistently large during the whole period. This policy was consistently perceived as a top EU spending priority by the largest share of EU respondents. In addition, it was consistently respondents’ least desired policy to be an EU spending priority. Fluctuations in the EU average perception of administrative spending as a priority and differences amongst Member States were almost non-existent (see Figure 15). This was the only policy area with such a consistent and uniform level of desire for EU spending (or rather not spending).