While individual nations and their citizens are forced to cope with austerity measures and are facing another recession, the EU's bureaucracy is giving itself a massive pension increase.
Currently, the EU’s retirement plan for bureaucrats is 60% of a person's final salary, which evens out to an annual pension of $91,000. The total cost to European national governments comes out to about $1.6 billion per year.
Now, the European Commission is requesting a 26% increase to cover the growing costs of the civil service in the proposed 2014-2020 budgets, bringing the cost from $72 billion to $91 billion.
UK taxpayers alone will reportedly have to pay an extra $2.2 billion annually for the next seven years to double the total pensions for Brussels’ officials.
The UK is already forking out a hefty $104 billion a year in direct and indirect costs to maintain membership in the EU. The new increase in pensions tacks on an extra $15.7 billion for the next seven years.
Criticism of high and burdensome pensions for EU staff forced the European Commission to respond to the issue this year. Even then, the latest pension bill in the 2012 Brussels budget still demands a 4.9% increase.
A confidential letter leaked to The Telegraph also reveals that EU pensions are set to double to more than $3.2 billion a year by 2045.
"Most member states are responding to current economic and fiscal circumstances with efficiency measures or other reforms affecting the terms and conditions of their national civil servants. The staff of the European Institutions should share the burden," stated the letter.
The EU Commission has dismissed the letter, arguing that it will only consider requests signed by all 27 states.
As a result, some EU diplomats are encouraging all member states to unite on the issue and demand cutbacks in EU’s staffing costs.
Let's hope they are successful in forcing the EU bureaucrats to share the burden they have imposed on their members and citizens.
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