The Backlash that shouldn't be...

The Daily Telegraph reports today that there is a "growing backlash" concerning the perks enjoyed by senior staff in the EU administration.

Apparently, these senior officials, earning between €104,000 and €185,000 per annum are entitled to three months off work on full pay each year. "Nice work if you can get it" was the sentiment that first sprang to my mind. However the article goes on:

Stephen Booth, of the Open Europe pressure group, said: "If the top ranks of the EU's civil service can take this much time off it raises interesting questions about how much work they're actually doing."

This is the bit that rattled me. If the "backlash" results in these overpaid parasites actually doing more "work" then on top of the ludicrous expense of this near-farcical organisation (which is bad enough in itself) we shall have to face up to an additional 25% damage caused by these bureaucrats. The more "work" they do, the worse it gets.

I say give them nine months' holiday each year!

Until the next time.

The Money Pit

There is currently a problem in the EU: that of approving next year's budget.

Officially, an increase of 6% has been requested, but MEPs are proposing 2.9% whilst according to this BBC article, a number of governments, in the throes of ruthlessly cutting their own budgets, are proposing leaving the EU budget at 2010 level.

I consider that to be more than enough given that the budget, according to this BBC graph, has increased nearly 40% over the last ten years:

As far as the UK is concerned, note the footnote about exchange rates. Using XE.com's useful historical chart, I find that in 2001 the pound stood at around 1.60 against the euro, very different from today's rate of 1.18. So in cost terms, the decline of the value of the pound has meant that the UK's contributions have become increasingly expensive, quite apart from the regular increases shown in the table above. Europhiles will blame this additional cost of course on the UK's refusal to sign up to the euro, but remaining with the pound has proved to be sensible, given the states of various European economies who have er, "benefitted" from membership of the Eurozone.

The BBC piece goes on to say that in the event of the budget not being approved (which seems likely) then the EU may not be able to afford to launch it's new diplomatic service ludicrously called the EEAS: The European External Action Service. The EEAS has been budgeted at €475.8 million. On top of the colossal corruption and fraud prevalent in the EU and widely reported for a number of years, who needs another 475.8 million wasted euros?

Please remember the case of Marta Andreason, former EU chief accountant sacked by the Welsh windbag, Kinnock - then an EU Commissioner, for drawing attention to financial "irregularities."

Kinnock and his wife did alright though: they weren't sacked, they're doing very nicely thank you very much. Gravy train 'socialists' the pair of them - like one of Kinnock's predecessors, Roy "Claret" Jenkins, Britain's worst ever Chancellor of the Exchequer and another EU Commissioner.

Will no one rid us of this parasitic nightmare?

Until the next time.