Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news Commission takes states to court in pay row

Commission takes states to court in pay row

11 January 2012, 22:23 CET
— filed under: , , , ,

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union executive announced Wednesday it is taking the bloc's 27 austerity-driven states to court over the wages of EU civil servants, seeking to uphold their pay raises.

"The European Commission has today decided to take the Council to the Court of Justice for failing to adopt the council regulation on the annual adjustment to the remuneration and pensions of EU staff as anticipated in the staff regulations," the executive said in a statement.

"Savings have to be made in compliance with the law and if necessary by changing the law, not by breaking it," said Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic.

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.

Using eight states to calculate benchmark civil servant pay, increases in five -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands -- were offset by decreases in three, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg.

"On average, this meant that national officials lost 1.8 percent of their purchasing power in real terms," the Commission said.

"Exactly the same loss is proposed for EU officials, wherever they are based."

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.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will, then, 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.

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

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.

'Assessment of budgetary implementation in the context of the ongoing Excessive Deficit Procedures after the Commission Services' 2011 Autumn Forecast


Document Actions