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| Britain |
| EU is forced to reveal 'obscenely high' salaries |
| 2005-06-12 |
| Civil servants on the Brussels gravy train now earn £70,000 a year after tax. Take home base pay of $127,000 PLUS allowances and a huge pension, PLUS not one has ever been fired. And that's just for starters. The European Commission, by instinct bashful about its generous perks and allowances, was forced to disclose the figure, and much more, in response to a written question from a Czech MEP. The Commission admitted that its officials, who number nearly 20,500, are entitled to seven separate allowances over and above their pay, plus a generous pension scheme after just 10 years' service. The average take-home pay of £70,000 is based on the income of an "A" grade Eurocrat - one who can draft new laws, for example - who is married with two children and in the middle of his or her career. Chris Heaton-Harris, a Conservative MEP, described the figure as "obscenely high". He said: "They get paid too much for doing too little and most of that is done badly. They take Friday afternoons off and they get all the Belgian bank holidays. And what's more, they get extra money for having children." Brussels admitted to the following family staff perks: • Household allowance: two per cent of basic salary plus £100 a month. • Dependent child allowance: £185 a month per child. • Pre-education allowance: £11 a month. • School fees: reimbursement of up to £150 a month "doubled in certain cases". Eurocrats are also eligible for other allowances: • Expatriation allowance: 16 per cent of the total sum of basic salary, household allowance and dependent child allowance. • Secretarial allowances of between £77 and £120 a month. • "Various" allowances - among them standby duty, shiftwork, overtime, for which values were not given. Bureaucrats who are posted outside Brussels and Luxembourg are also eligible for an allowance known as a "correction coefficient". It compensates officials posted to cities with a high cost of living and rounds down salaries where life is cheaper than in Brussels or Luxembourg. As a result, expatriate officials posted to Britain are entitled to a further 42 per cent on top of their basic deal. The perks don't stop there. At the end of their careers, pensioners can expect £3,681 a month for the rest of their lives - at a total cost to the taxpayer of £303 million last year. What's more, in return for adhering to the EU's mantra of "ever closer union", the bureaucrats know they will never willingly be let go. There has never been a round of redundancies at the Commission and under-performing employees are often promoted because the bureaucracy involved in firing them is too onerous. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #4 The Lefties will bitch and moan if an American CEO makes big bucks, even if he/she was responsible for increased dividends for stockholders. The EUrocrats make MUCH more than the average European - whose wages are taxed at confiscatory levels to give said Eurocrats those salaries - and the silence from the usual suspects is deafening. Guess they don't want to interrupt those chirping crickets. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-06-12 18:10 |
| #3 Sounds ideal for our favorite Greek conscript -- if he survives. |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-06-12 15:23 |
| #2 Actually, one or two have been fired - for breaking the code of Omerta about things like obscenely high salaries and maladjustded budgets |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-06-12 12:27 |
| #1 LOL! Thisn better than Chicago! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-12 10:52 |