As Breitbart London reported just hours after Jean-Claude Juncker was nominated to be the next president of the European Commission, the (allegedly) wine-sodden and certainly triumphant Juncker is now in line for a €321,000 (£257,000) a year salary, a private plane, 24-hour personal television camera crews, an entertainment allowance, fabulous pension, a staff of flunkies, and thousands of euros in allowances.
Today the Sun newspaper added up those earnings and benefits into what the paper called “a giant £1.8million pay and perks bonanza,” including a £52,500-a-year pension after Juncker finishes his five-year term at the Commission, plus a £184,222 “residential allowance” over the term and monthly expenses of £1,135. On leaving office, he will get a £20,469 resettlement allowance.
Juncker’s salary is about £120,100 higher than that of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who earns £142,500. It is also $40,000 more than U.S. President Barack Obama, and at least €100,000 (£80,000) higher than that of any prime minister in the European Union.
However, Juncker is not alone is being paid far more than the democratically-elected leaders of the EU member states.
According to research carried by the European Voice in April, all the top unelected EU-elite earn more than any democratically-elected national representative.
The president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi at €374,124 (£299,728) earns even more than the commission president.
Herman Van Rompuy, unelected president of the European Council, earns €321,238 (£257,358).
Catherine Ashton, whom Gordon Brown took from from being a British Labour quangocrat to the job of the EU’s foreign policy and security representative, earns €297,521 (£238,358).
A plain-vanilla European Commissioner earns €255,300 (£204,532), while the four commissioners who have been given the rank of vice-president of the commission earn €286,500 (£229,528).
A member of the Luxembourg-based Court of Auditors receives the same pay as a commissioner. No auditing experience is required for the job, only a political appointment by a member state government.
All of these eurocrats earn more than the British prime minister, and more than Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (€204,192/£163,587), President François Hollande of France (€178,920/£143,341), and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy (€207,360/£166,126).
According to the European Voice figures, even eurocrats no one outside Brussels has ever heard of earn more than prime ministers. The anonymous Peter Johan Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, has a salary of €255,300 (£204,532) a year, while an unelected and almost unsackable top civil servant at the commission will pull in €220,452 (£176,614).
These EU salaries are calculated without the added perks, such as the allowance for children and free education at elite European Schools which would cost anyone else up to €11,000 (£8,812) a term. Nor do the pay levels reflect the privileged light level of taxation which eurocrats pay, all covered by the average British and European taxpayer.
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