European Commission staff are to be granted an automatic pay raise to match the current levels of inflation, despite the rise being against prior Commission advice to national governments.
Inflation has drastically increased across the European Union in recent months, with some countries experiencing over eight per cent inflation, increasing the costs of goods and services for everyday citizens. The European Commission has warned member states that giving automatic payrises to employees risks turbocharging inflation and should be avoided.
Yet workers in the European Commission have already got a 2.4 per cent rise and are due to get another 8.5 per cent after EU diplomats agreed to it, Politico reports. The raise will be confirmed should EC ministers sign it off.
“This system does not aim to index salaries according to the inflation but to keep the evolution of the purchasing power of EU civil servants in line with those of national civil servants,” a Commission spokesperson stated.
Cristian Terheș, a Romanian member of the European Parliament, slammed the wage increase telling Breitbart London, “After they caused the cost of living increase all across Europe, spreading poverty like never before, EU officials maybe consider [whether] they ‘deserve’ a pay increase of 8.5 per cent.”
“With higher inflation and taxes, people now have to pay more to the same Eurocrats who brought them into this mess. The audacity of the EU officials to increase their salaries by 8.5 per cent, especially at this moment, when the regular people are suffering, is just another proof that, except for accumulating more power and serving the big special interest groups, they don’t care about people,” he added.
European Trade Union Confederation Secretary General Luca Visentini, however, welcomed the pay rise, stating, “The same system of indexation should be applied to all European workers, and the Commission should clearly recommend it to member states, knowing that wage depression leads to economic recession.”
Employees and members of the European Commission are among some of the best paid public servants in the world and the new pay raise could see European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen take in additional 2,483 euros per month, according got the conservative German newspaper, Junge Freiheit.
Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to note the 8.5 per cent raise has been agreed by Commission bosses but not yet finalised