EU to spend £1.25m on 'costly' computer tablets for staff The parliament says the use of tablets will contribute to "cost reduction, reduction of the organisation's own carbon footprint, improved mobility and increased productivity." But former European Commission chief accountant and Conservative budgetary control spokesman Marta Andreasen said, "Staff are clearly getting an early Christmas present this year. With €1,360 to spend on each tablet you can bet the Parliament won't be buying bargain basement products. This is a costly extravagance that staff simply do not need. Lavishing hugely expensive tablets on its staff just proves, yet again, how removed the European Parliament bureaucracy feel they are from the financial crisis. They preach the need for austerity to everyone but themselves. Trying to dress up this move as an attempt to increase productivity and reduce their carbon footprint is treating taxpayers as fools," added the MEP. A Parliament spokesman said no decision had yet been taken on the sort of tablet to be selected, adding: "Tests will be conducted to see which tablet is most convenient so the price of €1,360 is pure fantasy." The move was justified, she said, because the Parliament "wants to make a substantive shift to a paperless office, which has resulted in very important savings in other parliaments. Another reason is that a high number of policy advisers to committees will shortly have their offices some two or three streets away from the committee meetings, which requires them to have highly mobile working devices in any event. "These are not luxury items but working tools in a 21st century parliament, which aims to increase efficiency and make substantial savings by going paperless," added the spokesman.