By Bruno Waterfield - 13th July 2006
The European commission has attacked “unjustified” Brussels job cuts tabled by the Finnish EU presidency.
Helsinki is pushing to shave €1.8bn off commission budget proposals for 2007 and to slash 1700 eurocrat jobs over the next seven years.
European budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite is angry that €56m in cuts will see a Brussels jobs freeze on a projected 800 recruitments from new EU members next year.
The Finns – representing the council of the EU and national governments – are seeking savings next year and to scrap posts when officials retire in the years up until 2013.
“The council has decided to stop the recruitment of 800 posts it has politically decided,” said Grybauskaite.
“The proposals are about making cuts, it is not justified, it will mean 1700 job losses, that is practically three large commission departments.”
The commission is concerned that as the EU enlarges from 25 to 27 a projected increase in staff of 3900 has been cut to 2200.
Grybauskaite points to higher administrative costs in national government, an average of 23 per cent of general budgets, compared to the commission’s 3.4 per cent of the EU budget.
Finnish finance minister Ulla-Maj Wideroos insisted that the budget reductions were about increasing productivity, not cutting jobs.
“We have to call a spade a spade, we are trying to limit growth, not to cut it,” she said.
Poland, Spain and Italy are said to have rallied behind the commission as negotiations on 2007 spending continue after the summer.
Regional aid for Europe’s poorest areas is to be cut by €600m under the EU presidency cuts and reductions to farm budgets will total €800m.
Budget pruning will also see deep cuts to foreign affairs spending, research, communicating Europe under proposals first reported on this website on Wednesday.
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