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Commission to take states to court in pay row

21 December 2011, 18:43 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - The European Union executive launched Wednesday a new battle with the bloc's 27 austerity-driven states over the wages of EU civil servants, vowing to go to court to defend their pay raises.

Under a system for automatic pay changes linked to national cost of living indexes, EU staff in Belgium were awarded an average wage rise of 1.7 percent next year, but governments voted against letting it through.

As a result, the commissioner with responsibility for the EU's administration and staff is to "propose in January a decision in this sense" to the European Commission's cabinet, the spokesman for Maros Sefcovic told AFP.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will, therefore, for the second time in three years, be asked to adjudicate between the EU's permanent executive and the governments that fund its some 130-billion-euros ($170 billion) budget.

Court papers will be filed "for the non-respect of the method" set down in law for calculating wages, said the spokesman, Antony Gravili.

Two years ago the court found in favour of the Commission, awarding its employees a 3.7 percent pay rise.

This year's 1.7-percent rise is an adjusted figure to take account of Belgian inflation and indexed-linked Belgian pay law, which saw civil servants working for the Belgian government receive an automatic 3.6 percent raise.

Gravili said earlier this month that the rise equates to a "1.8-percent drop in real terms," adding that the Commission was already showing "sensitivity" to a climate of austerity and cuts around EU governments.

The Commission has committed to reducing staff numbers by one in 20 between 2013 and 2017, restricting access to higher pay grades and special accommodation allowances, cutting administrative salaries and increasing working hours as well as retirement age.

On top of 7.0 billion euros of planned savings already under a previous change to the formula that sets wage levels, the Commission wants to deliver one billion euros in savings by 2020.

Higher-ranking EU staff routinely receive five-figure monthly salaries plus better perks than comparable jobs in national administrations.


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