Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Due to the difficult economic situation, EU officials will see a 1.1% loss in their purchasing power in 2012, following an effective fall in purchasing power of 3.6% in 2011 and a cumulated drop of 7.6% between 2004 and 2011, the European Commission has announced in a press release published on 5 December.
This 1.1% drop is the result of a calculation formula used for the annual pay adjustment. This formula reflects developments in the purchasing power of national civil servants, on the basis of a basket of eight countries (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg). This year, the Commission notes, “the result exactly reflects the difficult economic situation” and its very diverse impact on national civil services: it takes into account the salary increases in Germany (+4.3%), Belgium (+2.5%), Luxembourg (+2.5%), France (+1.8%) and the United Kingdom (+0.9%), but also decreases in salaries of 3% in Spain and 1.9% in the Netherlands, and a salary freeze in Italy. The combined development of the purchasing power of these national civil servants is -1.1%; exactly the same loss of purchasing power is applied to EU civil servants.
The Commission goes on to state that it is firmly convinced that the European civil service must make further efforts. It points out that amongst other things, it has already proposed: - a 5% reduction in the staff of the institutions and agencies of the EU; - an increase in the retirement age; - a drop in starting and end of career salaries; - maintaining the “solidarity tax” and increasing it from 5.5% to 6%. However, the Council has failed to agree on these proposals, a fact regretted by the Commission. (OL/transl.fl)