2023-06-12 19:42:33
The EU Parliament is insatiable, it wants to raise its annual salary once more. In 2024, politician salaries are expected to increase by 15 percent to 367,000 euros. That’s almost 31,000 euros per person per month. This is shown by the Budget Committee’s draft budget for 2024 of May 17, 2023.
Compared to the last accounting year 2022, when the costs per member of parliament including expenses and pension benefits were still 294,000 euros, the remuneration should increase by 73,000 euros, an increase of 25 percent. Compared to the 2023 budget, the increase is 15 percent, following growth of 8.7 percent in the current year.
According to the EU Commission’s spring report of May 15, inflation in the EU will be around 6.7 percent in 2023 and 3.1 percent in 2024. There will thus be considerable increases in real wages, while the EU population will have to be happy if they can at least partially compensate for the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation.
The number of parliamentarians fell from 751 to 705 on January 1, 2022 following the Brexit-related departure of the British. Nevertheless, the remuneration of the EU Parliament rose from 181 to 207 million euros between 2021 and 2022. The departure of the 46 British MPs was more than offset by wage increases for the remaining members. The increase per capita was even a whopping 22 percent. The recent massive increases cannot be justified by a pent-up inflation adjustment.
But the members of parliament incur even higher costs than is reflected in their direct salaries. The administrative and technical support, the buildings and facilities lead to additional financial expenditure. Overall, the operation of the EU parliament in 2024 is expected to cost around 1.34 billion euros, which works out to an amount of 1.9 million euros per capita – for comparison: According to the Swiss financial plan for 2024, the expenditure per member of parliament is 187,000 francs, the parliamentary services expenditure per member of parliament 274,000 francs, which makes a total of 461,000 francs.
The fact that these massive salary increases are to take place in 2024 of all times shows how little the EU Parliament cares that there will then be financing bottlenecks in the general EU budget. The budget experts massively underestimated the interest costs for the monster programs of recent years, such as the subsidies for the labor market (Sure program: 100 billion) and the 800 billion “Next Generation EU” program for the restructuring of the economy and society.
Some of the programs have only just started, which is why the debt has not yet reached its full extent. Of the around 400 billion euros in debt securities outstanding in May 2023, 85 percent have only been issued since 2020.
In its financial plan for 2021 to 2027, the EU assumed a gradual rise in interest rates from 0.55 percent to 1.15 percent in 2027. It is now becoming apparent that the interest costs will probably be at least double to triple. Compared to the total budget for 2024 of around 186 billion, the amounts involved are significant.
In addition, the expenditure for Ukraine support and inflation weigh on the budget. Since the EU statutes are not allowed to cause intentional deficits, either programs have to be throttled or new revenues have to be tapped. Other sources of finance, such as a financial transaction tax or direct EU contributions from companies, are already being discussed. Proposals for this are to be made by the Commission by June 2024 so that the Council can start deliberations on these new own resources on July 1, 2025 and the measures can be introduced by January 1, 2026 at the latest.
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