Who pays the piper calls the tune? Not in the EU institutions, apparently....
Monday 11 January 2010By EU Reporter Correspondents
December 2009 saw EU staff members striking in anticipation of a coming pay battle. The European Commission is seeking an inflation-busting rise for staff and commissioners alike of 3.7%. Member states would like to limit the rise to 1.8%, mindful as they are of how such a rise would be perceived in countries suffering under the economic crisis.
EU staff are well paid by any standards: salaries range from 2,550 - 17,700 euros per month. This is made particularly attractive, as eurocrats pay a special low rate of income tax of just 12.5%. They also receive generous allowances for a wide range of reasons, and these are exempt tax. "One of my staff has a salary of 3,300, and yet takes home over 5,000 a month", one MEP told us. Nice work if you can get it, especially when one adds free healthcare and private schooling into the equation.
But there is another side to this story. Many of the younger professionals in the institutions are actually working unpaid. MEPs particularly like to employ interns for free, and readers will be aware of scandals involving parliamentarians diverting their staffing, office, and communications budgets through family members and privately owned companies that they themselves control. "By agreeing to work for nothing, these amibitious youngsters actually help to perpetuate this problem" an insider said.
Another sharp-practice, as yet largely undiscussed in the press, was highlighted to us by a young east-European assistant. Earning 1,200 a month, she told us that her previous MEP expected her to give 20% of her earnings back as a "cash donation to the party" each month. EU Reporter is aware of the name of the MEP in question, who is no longer sitting.
Whilst the British political establishment was rocked by last year's expenses scandals, continental practices and standards appear to be somewhat different. The present wage dispute threatens to overshadow this week's commissioner's hearings, and it will be very telling to see who gets their way - the Commission, or the member states whose taxpayer's actually have to foot the bill!