Brussels should join in belt tightening - by Patience Wheatcroft
Across Europe, governments are being forced to examine their budgets and see what might be cut. An age of austerity is being prescribed as the painful remedy for the debt-laden difficulties that now beset countries struggling to haul themselves out of recession. Ironically, it is only the government of Europe itself that determinedly eschews the new mood. The European Parliament has decided that every area of its budget needs to be increased, so it has set the draft budget for 2010 at €141 billion ($211 billion), against the current year's €136.8 billion. Making 2010 "the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion" may be a noble objective but, with just €10.5 million of the funds destined for that project, total success seems unlikely. Nevertheless, the EU will be doing its bit to combat poverty among its own armies of staff, since a salary increase of 3.7% is being proposed for them—a figure well ahead of inflation numbers in most member states.
Managing the payroll for around 40,000 people is a hefty task, as was underlined by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, recently. An advertisement for a new director of the "Office for Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements" spelled out that the department had a budget of some €3.9 billion. "Its mission" explained this prime example of Eurocratic jargon 'is to determine, calculate and pay the financial entitlements and remuneration of staff in an inter-institutional perspective and with clear client orientation."
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