By IANS,
London : Taxpayers in Britain will have to share the burden of a spiralling bill for a European history museum that will see them shelling out a whopping 19 million pounds.
The controversial House Of European History’s cost has doubled even before work could be initiated on it.
Viewed as a vanity project and dubbed the House of Horrors by critics, it is expected to cost almost 137 million pounds, contrary to an initial estimate of 58 million pounds, according to documents accessed by the Daily.
The costs of leasing a building, renovation and starting the exhibition have soared to 112.5 million pounds. Running expenses of 12 million pounds a year which is over 80 percent up than the forecast, will take the estimated total to 136.5 million pounds by the end of 2015.
The contribution of British taxpayers to the project, created to foster a “common historical memory” for the EU, will be a colossal 18.6 million pounds.
The museum has sparked further controversy by beginning with an EU “year zero” of 1946 because Members of European Parliament (MEPs) cannot agree on the fundamentals of history, such as World War II events.
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) MEP Marta Andreasen, who voted against the museum, said: “It defies both belief and logic that in this age of austerity MEPs have the vast sums of money to fund this grossly narcissistic project. Worst of all is that the chairman of the committee responsible for giving the go-ahead to the project sits on its board of trustees.
“In any other parliament such a clear conflict of interests would not be tolerated.”
The museum is expected to open in Brussels in 2014.