Last Thursday, the new, supplementary budget of the “27” was announced by the European Commission and already the forecasts included in the “Expenditure” column have caused disagreements to strong protests on behalf of prime ministers and presidents of the most financially robust member states, those that is, they put their hands deeper in their pockets to feed the common European fund.
The “27” have until December to agree to increase the spending of the current budget for the period 2021-2027 because, although we are still in 2023, it has become clear that the 1.216 trillion budgeted to be disbursed this period to cover EU spending, it is simply not enough. And they are falling short not only because of the emergency aid of around 71 billion euros estimated to have been granted by the partners to Ukraine so far (including military aid), but also because of the inflationary crisis, which has also derailed other spending.
The war overturned the predictions
The Commission considered it necessary to approve an additional budget of 66 billion euros to cover the spending needs of the “27” until 2027. One would reasonably think that the additional funds requested by the EU’s executive body barely cover what has been granted so far aid to the struggling Ukraine. But detailed budget entries show otherwise. In this regard, the provision for the granting of wage increases of a total of 1.9 billion euros to EU employees has become a bone of contention.
Dutch-Belgian rage
The increase in the European budget is “probably” necessary, as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reluctantly admits. But reaching into the pocket once again requires an additional effort for net contributors to the common budget, such as the Netherlands, Germany, France and even Italy.
However, “the EU’s main resources come from the smaller and economically weaker member states. Their total contribution corresponds to 64% of the common budget”, observes the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croix. “Especially since all member states are making very big efforts to put their budgets in order that were derailed during the pandemic crisis,” De Croo added.
“We are asking for sacrifices from the citizens of our countries, we are asking the European institutions to do the same,” De Croix is reported to have said, banging his fist on the table.
The anger of his neighbor was also shared by the Dutchman Rutte who noted that “as we foresee in the budgets, from time to time we have to tighten the belts for those employed in other positions”. Even more so if they are privileged well-paid workers, one would add.
6,500 euros net per month
The issue is that of the €66 billion, €1.9 billion is earmarked for helping workers with a net salary of €6,500 a month to deal with punctuality on the shelves of Belgian supermarkets. Because that is the average net monthly salary of a Euro-bureaucrat in Brussels. Twice the salary of the average French civil servant and five times the salary of his Greek colleague.
Workers in EU services in other member states are often paid significantly lower wages than the roughly 32,000 who work in Brussels. In any case, however, EU employees are also paid much better in other member states when compared to the average salary of workers in each country.
It should be noted that the expenditure of the European public administration in the period 2021-2027 has been budgeted at the record level of 82.5 billion euros.
Emmanuel Macron is also critical
Asked about the controversial proposal of the Commission, Emmanuel Macron was quite critical, not for its reasoning (the French have adopted since the beginning of the inflationary crisis a kind of automatic indexation of wages in both the public and private sectors), but for the “ease” of regulation.
“The amount proposed today seems excessive to us. Therefore, we asked for its reduction. But I don’t think this reduction should come at the expense of priorities for expanding funding,” the French president said, indirectly referring to Ukraine’s support needs against invaders and challengers to its national sovereignty.
Macron called on the European Commission to tighten its own belt by limiting its own spending as much as possible. “At a time when most European countries are trying to save funds in order to be able to maintain our investments in areas such as the defense of national sovereignty, defense and others, we have called on the Commission to ensure that wage increases are not made in some very good paid jobs”, the French president clarified.
