RIGA - Of the three Baltic parliaments, Estonia's costs the most for its people at 8.9 euros per capita, compared with 5.08 euros in Lithuania and 5.33 euros in Latvia.
The Latvian Parliament's EU information center reported that the biggest parliamentary budget in the Baltics belongs to the Lithuanian Seimas, which spends 17.5 million euros a year, followed by Latvia's, with a 12.8 million euro budget, and Estonia's Parliament spends 11.9 million euros of taxpayers money each year.
The number of parliamentarians in each country also differs: Lithuania, with the biggest population in the Baltics, has 141 MPs, while Latvia has 100 and Estonia has 101.
Compared with other EU countries, the parliamentary costs for Balts are still low. Italian taxpayers, for example, shell out around 30 euros a year for their 937 members of both parliamentary chambers, and in Luxembourg the 60 MPs cost each citizen 57 euros a year.
Of all EU members, including those set to join on May 1 this year, Polish Parliament members cost the least at around 2.4 euros per capita. While Poland's two-chamber Parliament includes 560 members and spends around 1 billion euros a year, the country has a population of 38 million.
