and services. It increases the cost of all activities of the public sector and thus a major factor in growth in money terms of public expenditure Composition Public expenditure can be divided into COFOG (Classification of the Functions of Government) categories cetris pari bus. Those categories are 1. Social protection – pensions, subsidies for family and children, unemployment subsidies, R&D (Research and Development) on social protection. 2. Health - public health services, medical products, appliances and equipment, hospital services, R&D on healthcare. 3. General Public Services - executive and legislative organs, financial and fiscal affairs, external affairs, foreign economic aid, public debt transactions, R&D related to general public services 4. Education - pre-primary, primary, secondary, tertiary education, R&D on education etc. 5. Economic Affairs - general economic, agriculture, fuel and energy, commercial and labour affairs, forestry, fishing and hunting, mining, manufacturing, transport, communication etc. 6. Public order and safety - police, fire-protection services, law courts, prisons etc. 7. Defence - military defence, civil defence, foreign military aid. 8. Recreation, culture and religion – Recreational and sporting services, cultural services, broadcasting and publishing services, religious services etc. 9. Environmental protection - waste management, pollution abatement, protection of biodiversity and landscape etc. 10. Housing and community services - housing development, community development, water supply, street lighting etc. European Union Public expenditures represented 46.7 percent of total GDP of the European Union in 2018. Countries with the highest percentage of public expenditure were France and Finland with 56 and 53 percent, respectively. The lowest percentage had Ireland with only 25 percent of its GDP. Among the countries of the European Union, the most important function in public expenditure is social protection. Almost 20 percent of GDP of European Union went to social protection in 2018. The highest ratio had Finland and France, both around 24 percent of their GDPs. The country with least social protection expenditure as percent of its GDP was Ireland with 9 percent. The second largest function in public expenditure is expenditure on health. The general government expenditure on health in European Union was over 7 percent of GDP in 2018. The country with highest share of health expenditure in 2018 Denmark with 8.4 percent. The least percentage had Cyprus with 2.7 percent. General public services had 6 percent of total GDP of European Union in 2018, Education around 4.6 percent and all other categories had less than 4.5 percent