Brussels, 03/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Around a dozen member states are still challenging the European Commission proposal for a 3.7% increase in European civil servants' salaries and pensions between summer 2008 and summer 2009. At the COREPER (Committee of Member States' Permanent Representatives to the EU) meeting on Wednesday 2 December, the so-called “net contributor countries” to the EU budget, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, along with those countries which have decided to reduce (sometimes by more than 10%) or to freeze their own civil servants' salaries (countries such as Greece, Ireland, Hungary and the Baltic States), called on the Commission to take a fresh look at the proposal. The Austrian Civil Service Minister Gabriel Heinisch-Hosek recently said that a “zero percent increase in salaries would be more appropriate”. Discussion on this issue will resume in the COREPER on 8 or 9 December. Agreement is expected before the end of the year.
For the moment, the Commission is standing by its proposal, which, in line with Appendix XI to Staff Regulations, takes account of changes in the purchasing power of national public salaries (remuneration, after tax, of national civil servants in central administrations in a sample of eight countries - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom) and changes in the Brussels cost of living for EU officials. These figures are +2.7% and +0.9% respectively. The Commission notes, further, that EU officials' real salaries before tax will, under its proposals, rise by 2.7% in 2009, but this is after -1.3% in 2008, 0% in 2007, +0.2% in 2006, 0% in 2005 and -1.4% in 2004.
The employees' organisation Union for Unity (U4U) has called on the Commission to: - stick to its proposal and not amend it; - immediately bring proceedings for failure to act, if the Commission proposal is not adopted by the Council. It calls on the Council to “abide by its legal and moral obligations towards the European civil service as a whole”. Trade unions should be “prepared to hand in strike notice,” U4U says too. It notes, lastly, that in exchange for the method of adjusting remuneration, officials “had a compulsory deduction imposed in addition to their income tax”. This additional deduction will rise to 5.07% of pre-tax salary from 1 January, “something member states are not challenging”. (L.C./transl.rt)