EU GOVERNMENTS are preparing to call publicly on the European Commission to rethink plans for a 3.7 per cent pay award to officials of the union and newly elected MEPs because of the economic crisis.
The proposed rise, backdated to July 1st, is due to be introduced on January 1st following an annual survey of civil service pay in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Britain.
While applying to the 50,000 staff of the EU institutions in member states and further afield, it also applies to MEPs elected for the first time in European elections this year. Five Irish MEPs are in this category: Pat “the Cope” Gallagher (FF); Nessa Childers (Lab); Alan Kelly (Lab); Joe Higgins (Socialist); and Sean Kelly (FG).
It was also open to re-elected MEPs to move to the new system, in which their gross annual salary of €91,983 is calculated at 38.5 per cent of the pay of an ordinary judge in the European Court of Justice.
Although Mr Gallagher said he would have “no difficulty” with the increase, Sean Kelly opposes it and Mr Higgins said it should not be awarded to MEPs but should be given to other staff.
Mr Gallagher said he was earning €35,000 less than he did as a TD. “When I came out here, I didn’t really think about it, but I knew that the salary would be 38 per cent of the judges’ salary. Whatever we’re entitled to, we’ll get. I don’t intend making a martyr of myself,” he said.
“In actual fact, it would be small compensation for me insofar as when I left Leinster House on June 8th this year, I had a salary of €126,000 and I came here and I dropped €35,000 . . . We’re earning substantially less than our counterparts in Dublin. Money has never been an influence on me in politics.”
A spokesman for Sean Kelly said he wasn’t aware the increase would apply to MEPs but said it would be “completely unacceptable” for them to benefit. “It’s not living in the real world, in the current economic crisis, to be giving rises and he has already spoken out against it,” the spokesman said.
Mr Higgins said: “I would feel that the staff should be awarded this, because this is their traditional mechanism for cost-of-living increases, but it shouldn’t be applied to MEPs.”
Amid near-unanimous opposition to the measure among member states, EU ambassadors are working on the text of a statement in which their governments would ask the commission to consider withdrawing its proposal.
The commission has so far refused, arguing it is contractually bound as an employer to introduce the increase in line with established procedure and faces legal action if it does not.
The governments believe it is open to the EU to impose a levy on EU staff to claw back the increase, or phase it in.
Unions representing EU staff in Brussels have resisted the push to block the rise. On Monday they staged a demonstration in support of their claim.