Golden coffee for MPs

It was not a one time deal. News broke today that another surreal amount has been charged in parliament. This time it was about coffee and bottled water orders in 44 parliamentary committee conferences last December and the bill is at 10,023 euros.

This is the amount the parliament has to pay to the beverage supplier and it was posted in the parliament site according to its own rules of transparency. How many cups of coffee do the state representatives need in order to perform without falling asleep, one might ask.

Well, it is doubtful even they could answer that. But some simple math might help. There are parliamentary committees which occupy 50 MPs, there are others carrying just 19. Simple division shows us that the average cost for each MP in the big conferences is at 4.5 euros, while in the less crowded ones, it goes up to 12.1 euros.