By Martin Banks - 6th July 2011
The pay, perks and pensions of EU officials is ridiculously high
Paul Nuttall
A new report has claimed that nearly half of European commission officials earn more than €80,000 a year.
The Open Europe think-tank obtained figures showing that an MEP's salary and expenses are more than double that of a UK MP.
The findings come at a time when the commission is seeking to increase the EU budget for the 2014-2020 period, despite vehement opposition from some countries.
The revelations, strongly refuted by the Commission, have led to calls for the pay of EU civil servants and MEPs to be frozen.
According to Open Europe, of the 23,928 permanent and temporary EU officials employed by the commission, some 10,240 earn more than €80,000 gross.
It makes a comparison with the UK where it says that of the country's 527,490 civil servants, only 5,490 earn that amount.
Reaction to the report was swift with Martin Callanan, the leader of the UK Conservatives in parliament, saying, "The EU needs to change the comfortable French model of jobs for life for its eurocrats.
"Any efforts to change the current conditions will be met with fierce resistance from the trade unions but the commission must still take them on and ensure eurocrats are not immune from the austerity measures being felt across the EU."
Ukip deputy leader Paul Nuttall said, "The pay, perks and pensions of EU officials is ridiculously high.
"These people want 'more EU' because it is good for their bank balance, all the while being harmful to national democracy, and expensive for the taxpayer."
A parliament source said, "Comparing MEPs to national MPs is not comparing like-for-like as MEPs represent millions of people compared to around 60,000 for an MP and they have to travel far greater distances to Brussels and Strasbourg."
A commission spokesman said, "We regard Open Europe's report as dishonest, manipulative and riddled with basic errors.
"First, they compare all civil servants at all levels in the UK with just officials and temporary agents in the Commission. No mention of Contract Agents, who are generally the lowest paid category of staff. There are literally thousands of these (around 6,000 in the Commission, 10,000 across all EU institutions). One can only speculate why Open Europe chose to exclude them from their 'comparison'.
"Second, comparing the European Commission with national administrations is comparing apples and pears anyway. We are very small (less than half the size of Birmingham City Council), despite serving 500 million European citizens in 27 Member States and others across the world, particularly in Africa and other developing regions.
"The Commission also needs to attract the top talent, able to work in several languages, and willing to move (and uproot their families) to another country. Furthermore, there is a legal obligation to ensure geographical balance.
"This means we must be able to attract people from places like the UK and Netherlands (where salaries for such people are high) as well as from relatively poorer countries like Latvia or Romania. Remuneration packages must take account of the need to attract such people, and they are already set at a level where the Commission is really struggling to attract certain job categories (competition lawyer, financial expert) and nationalities (Germany, France, Netherlands and - especially - the UK in recent competitions for administrators.
"A more appropriate comparison would be with diplomatic officials working abroad, international organisations and international law firms.
"Third, the Commission employs 29,800 officials (worldwide, all categories), not 23,928.
"Fourth, the comments above cannot in any way be interpreted as acceptance that Open Europe's salary claims are right. It would take time to verify this - and given the number of errors everywhere else in the report, I would handle these figures with extreme caution as well.
"Fifth, the share of administration costs in the EU's budget is not rising from 5.7 per cent to 6.1 per cent."
"The Commission is showing that it is in touch with developments in the Member States, and it will continue to strive for further efficiencies and economies while ensuring its continuing ability to deliver solutions to complex policy challenges and get Europe back onto the road of jobs and growth."
