By Martin Banks - 15th July 2010
It seems that the EU commissioners and their staff are well insulated from the effects of the economic downturn
David Stoddart
New figures reveal the "grandiose" scale of salaries paid to EU commissioners and officials.
They reveal not just that all 27 Commissioners earn more than UK premier David Cameron but that a further 300 EU officials are on a pay scale which starts at a 'minimum' that is greater than Cameron's €170,000 salary.
The data is contained in a UK government reply to a question tabled by British peer David Stoddart.
The reply, from David Howell, the minister of state at the UK foreign and commonwealth office, said, "The Prime Minister's salary equates to approximately €170,000 (at current exchange rates).
"All 27 members of the college of commissioners receive a higher salary than this. We do not hold information as to which EU officials earn a salary in excess of €170,000.
"We do not have access to the salary details of individual EU officials.
"We do have access to salary scales and the approximate number of officials in each grade. Officials in grades AD 16 and AD 15 (director-general level) have scales in which the minimum is above the salary of the Prime Minister.
"There are some 300 staff in these grades."
Howell, a former government minister, adds,"At a time when governments across the EU are reining in their spending, it is only right that the EU institutions think carefully about every euro that they spend to ensure that they get the most from their money.
"We are currently pushing for a freeze in the 2011 budget and expect salary levels to reflect the current economic conditions."
In response, Stoddard described the statistics as "stunning."
He said, "These statistics are quite staggering and reveal that there is an unelected governing elite in Brussels, with golden remuneration packages that are an insult to the taxpayer which subsidises them. It is worth noting that we are only talking about salaries here.
"These grandiose officials will have many other perks including lavish expenses of which ordinary working people can only dream.
"It would appear that by comparison to this pampered and overpaid elite that our Prime Minister is a somewhat underpaid office junior.
"It seems that the EU commissioners and their staff are well insulated from the effects of the economic downturn.
"Britain needs a government with both the will and the political strength necessary to put an end to this madness."
Stoddart was for many years the chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain, which campaigns for the UK to end its membership of the EU.
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