The European Union (EU) has an independent parliament and civil service which is distinct from those of the 27 member states. It administers common laws between the member states and expenditure on common policies throughout the EU. To pay for this the EU has an agreed budget of €116 billion for the year 2007, and €862 billion for the period 2007-2013, this represent around 1% of the EU's GDP. By comparison, the UK expenditure for 2004 alone was estimated at about €759 billion and France was estimated at about €801 billion. In 1960, the then "EU" (EEC) budget was 0.03% of GDP.http://www.euro-know.org/articles/wew.html