What Makes Brussels More Equal Than Others
Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad ran a little article recently that we’re surprised no other news organization picked up. It concerned a proposal in the European Parliament in which the parliamentarians got to vote on raising their own paycheck (always a good idea). The best thing about the story is that not everyone voted in favor.
Most did though. It much amused me to see that apparently it was Angela Merkel’s party, the German Christian Democrats, which was behind the proposal. Initially, they had even wanted double what they actually got. Here’s some numbers and details – and please forgive me for not being a math wizard -.
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP), according to the article, receives the following for their valiant and entirely selfless efforts at public service:
• Salary: €8000+
• Expenses: €4300
• A per diem allowance of €300 for every day a meeting is attended.
Per year that adds up to: €147.600 + €30,000 if 100 meetings are attended. Let’s say €180,000.
On top of that, the Parliament pays into MEPs pension funds, but we’ll leave that alone for now.
There are 751 MEPs, so total ‘salary’ costs are €135,180,000. But that’s just the start.
And we’re not yet adding translation costs, which apparently can add up to over €120,000 per day (!), or perhaps some €30-40 million per year.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
