The European Commission proposed today to raise the salaries of 50,000 EU civil servants by 1.7%. This is absolutely ludicrous particularly at a time of financial crisis where several member states have been applying pay freezes to their civil servants.
The EU civil servants already enjoy high salaries, for instances a senior director general may receive over €17,000 per month, plus all the benefits such as family allowances, expatriation allowance, installation allowance, travel expenses, removal expenses, daily subsistence allowance as well as low taxes.
The Commission decides on annual pay adjustments for EU civil servants according to a staff regulation formula based on two factors: trends in civil service salaries in eight member states, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the cost of living in Brussels.
Several Member States have introduced wage freezes for their national civil servants. Obviously, the majority of the Member States is opposed to such pay rise and is calling for a freeze in the EU civil servants’ salaries. Hence, on 4 November, because of the financial crisis, several member states, including the UK, asked the Commission to invoke a staff regulations’ exception clause which reads “If there is a serious and sudden deterioration in the economic and social situation within the Community, assessed in the light of objective data supplied for this purpose by the Commission, the latter shall submit appropriate proposals (…).” This would have prevented the automatic salary increased for this year. However, according to the Commission the abovementioned criteria have not been met. The Commission said “An analysis based on the 2011 Autumn European Economic Forecast, issued on 10 November, showed those conditions have not been met, and that the -1.8% proposed cut in purchasing power fully captures the changed circumstances of national civil servants.”
According to the Daily Telegraph a government spokesman said: "EU institutions cannot be immune from the savings and efficiency measures being implemented elsewhere across Europe. The very generous terms and conditions of EU officials need to be brought much closer into line with those of other European citizens."
The Council is required to take a decision on the Commission's proposal by 31 December. The Council might decide to freeze the EU’s civil servant salaries however such move is very likely to end up in the ECJ. In December 2009, the Council decided to amend the Commission’s proposal “in light of the financial and economic crisis.” The Member States agreed, therefore, to cut the proposed wage increase of the EU civil servants, from 3.70 percent to 1.85 percent. However, last November, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Council “exceeded the powers conferred on it by the Staff Regulations” by fixing an increase of 1.85% and not a 3.7% as proposed by the European Commission. Member States have opposed to such pay rise due to the economic crisis, and, because the ECJ said so, they had to accept it.
