Agreed. The EU institutions are remarkably efficient compared to their national equivalents. 80,000 civil servants is a tiny number for a polity of 450 million people. Ireland for example has 50,000 for a population of 1/10th the size.
Admittedly however, the scope of national civil services tends to be much larger than that of the EU's.
Those 50k Irish bureaucrats exist in that number because the organizations they work for are tasked with, among other things, ensuring compliance with rules written in Brussels.
Admittedly however, the scope of national civil services tends to be much larger than that of the EU's.