Eurocrats strike over pay and conditions

EU civil servants called a strike on Tuesday over calls to slash pay and conditions.

The UK, Germany and the Netherlands, want to trim the amount spent on staff.

It amounts to six percent of the bloc’s budget.

This union leader said cuts would make it harder to recruit talent.

“On a vraiment de reel dificultes pour recluter des hommes et des femmes competentes au services de l’europe”.

Another union represenative dimissed concerns over EU pay levels as an “obsession.”

“We have an obsesssion about salaries it’s not that which is important. The most important is the European ideal and to pursure this European project”

Salaries range from two thousand six hundred euros to eighteen thousand.

But it is not tax free.

Eurocrats pay a one-off levy of six percent back into the EU budget.

Income tax rates vary from eight to forty five percent.

Generous perks include an expat allowance that amounts to 16 percent of an official’s salary.

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