EU Commissioners to take home more than £1 million each on leaving office
21 March 2009
New research from Open Europe has found that European Commissioners leaving office later this year will receive more than £1 million each in pension payments and so-called 'transitional' and 'resettlement' allowances.[1]
The exact number of Commissioners who will retire at the end of this Commission's mandate, by the end of the year, remains uncertain, and the formation of the new Commission could be delayed until October.[2] However, some reports suggest that as many as 20 Commissioners could leave.[3] The 20 expected to leave will receive a total of £23 million in payouts.
Following reports of the sizeable pay-off secured by Peter Mandelson when he left the Commission last year[4], Open Europe finds that some Commissioners are set to receive even bigger settlements when they leave.
Long-serving Communications Commissioner Margot Wallstrom - whose main job has been to promote the EU - will receive almost £1.8 million if she leaves the Commission this year.
Meanwhile, UK Commissioner Catherine Ashton, who replaced Lord Mandelson and who has been in the job for less than a year, will qualify for an ample pension of £9,600 a year, in addition to three years of 'transition' payments, valued at over £89,000 a year. On top of this, she will receive a £18,700 'resettlement' allowance.
All of this is in addition to the salaries and perks that Commissioners are entitled to during their term of service.
Commissioners receive basic salaries of at least £220,000 a year (more for Vice-Presidents and the President) - meaning that in one five-year term alone, a Commissioner earns in excess of £1 million.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso receives an annual salary of over £275,000. This is almost exactly equivalent to US President Barack Obama's salary ($400,000).[5]
This is in addition to a host of other perks, which include residence allowances of 15% of their salary (£40,000)[6] and monthly 'entertainment allowances'.
In total, the team of 27 European Commissioners[7], headed up by President Jose Barroso, has cost the taxpayer more than £70 million, in this five-year term - including salaries, pensions, and the various allowances. This does not include other perks that Commissioners receive during their service, such as family allowances and subsistence allowances. The pension costs alone amount to more than £33 million.[8]
Open Europe Analyst Sarah Gaskell said:
"Even Sir Fred Goodwin would be impressed at the size of the pensions that Commissioners are walking away with."
"Taxpayers around Europe, whose pensions have been swallowed up in the recession, will rightly question why they are footing such an enormous bill for a handful of remote officials who they never voted for in the first place."
"It is a topsy-turvy world when an unelected EU official is earning the same wage as the democratically elected President of the United States."
A breakdown of Commissioners' salaries and perks can be found here:
www.openeurope.org.uk/research/commissionpensions.xls
Notes for Editors:
1) For more information, please contact Lorraine Mullally on 020 7197 2333 or 07817 027 911, or Sarah Gaskell on 07971 814442.
2) Open Europe is an independent think-tank calling for reform of the European Union. Its supporters include: Sir Stuart Rose, Executive Chairman, Marks and Spencer plc; Sir Crispin Davis, Chief Executive, Reed Elsevier Group plc; Sir David Lees, Chairman, Tate and Lyle plc; Henry Keswick, Chairman, Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd; Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG, Life President, J Sainsbury plc; Sir John Egan, Chairman, Severn Trent plc and Lord Kalms of Edgware, President, DSG International plc.
A full list can be found at http://www.openeurope.org.uk/
Commissioners in the Barroso Commission are: Jose Manuel Barroso, Gunter Verheugen, Margot Wallstrom, Jacques Barrot, Siim Kallas, Antonio Tajani, Viviane Reding, Stavros Dimas, Joaquin Almunia, Danuta Hubner, Joe Borg, Dalia Grybauskaite, Janez Potocnik, Jan Figel, Olli Rehn, Louis Michel, Laszlo Kovacs, Neelie Kroes, Mariann Fischer Boel, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Charlie McCreevy, Vladimir Spidla, Andris Piebalgs, Meglena Kuneva, Leonard Orban, Androulla Vassiliou, Catherine Ashton, Markos Kyprianou, Franco Frattini and Peter Mandelson.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] See here for details: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/entitlements/entitlements.pdf
[2] See here: http://www.euractiv.com/en/opinion/summit-consider-extending-commission-mandate/article-180362
[3] Winds of change begin to blow in Brussels, Jan 2009: http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/winds-change-blow-brussels/article-178860
[4] See, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/12/mandelson-labour
[5] See: http://money.howstuffworks.com/question449.htm
[6] Regulation No 422/67/EEC, Article 4, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1967R0422:20040501:EN:PDF
[7] 30 people in total have served in the Barroso Commission, filling 27 posts, see http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/index_en.htm
[8] All amounts calculated in today's exchange rate (€1=£0.94)