Prodi’s modest taste is a bargain for EU taxpayers

Date: 08/03/01

When the present batch of Commissioners took office in 1999 they were each allocated a generous €25,000 for office renovations, presumably in a bid to chase out the ghosts of the previous lot.

But President Romano Prodi, evidently determined to prove his credentials for efficiency, has instead billed the EU taxpayer for just the cost of shipping some old tables and chairs from Italy.

Do not think the chief is slumming it, however. The furnishings in question are a set of antique Italian furniture lent to Prodi, free of charge, by the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Rome.