But how much do Eurobureaucrats cost?! Ecofin calls for cuts and less hiring
Spending out of control in the EU. And Ecofin asks “all the institutions of the Union to adopt a global and targeted approach to stabilize the number of personnel and reduce administrative costs“. And the Commission must be vigilant. All the details
“Several years of staff increases, notably in the European Parliament but also in other institutions, are undermining the institutional balance and putting heading 7 under considerable pressure. This pressure is amplified by the current method of automatic wage updates, energy prices and general price increases in the current unprecedented inflationary environment”. This was written by the "Economy and Finance" Council (Ecofin) which, as is well known, is made up of the ministers of the economy and finances of all the member states and is responsible for EU policy as regards economic policy, matters relating to taxation and regulation of financial services.
WHAT ECOFIN REQUESTS
“The Council”, approving the conclusions on the financial year 2024, in the broader decision-making exercise on the common multiannual budget (MFF 2021-2027), “therefore requests common measures to contain this heading. Where appropriate, in the light of the above, invites the Commission to exercise the powers set out in Article 314(1) TFEU". Just the Commission in June last year decreed a salary increase of 2.4 percent in June, with retroactive effect starting from January.
THE INCREASE OF SALARIES IN THE COMMISSION
According to Politico , this decision will affect the EU executive's budget by an additional 95 million euros. The adjustment also concerns the deductions paid by officials to the EU budget, bringing the net effect on the budget to 78 million euros, explained a spokesman for Palazzo Berlaymont who defined the payroll increase as an "automatic calculation without no political discretion".
For this reason, Ecofin asks the Commission to supervise the fact that "each institution, with the exception of the European Central Bank, draws up‚ before 1 July‚ a statement of expenditure estimates for the following financial year". In this exercise “the Commission groups these estimates into a draft budget”. Put simply, the EU executive led by Ursula von der Leyen is urged to ask each institution to declare how much it spends and to report to the Council by 30 June so as to keep costs under control.
Also because in asking the Commission for "effective measures to ensure that the current ceilings of heading 7 are not exceeded", Ecofin expressly requests to check that "the special instruments are not mobilized for this heading". In short, other post offices cannot be distracted to guarantee coverage for these items of expenditure.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ma-quanto-costano-gli-euroburocrati-lecofin-chiede-tagli-e-meno-assunzioni/ on Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:45:09 +0000.