The European Parliament already costs taxpayers more than two billion euros a year, but despite the fear of a recession and high inflation, the institution of austerity wants nothing to do with it. In fact, parliament wants more millions to hire another 52 staff and 116 assistants. While the Brussels bureaucracy is being asked to be a bit modest about staff growth, more than a hundred highly paid civil servants were added last year.
A large group of EU member states is fed up with the immodest desire for even more budget for the European Parliament. The trouble is, the EU institutions have signed a decades-old pact not to block each other’s spending plans. Nevertheless, the EU ambassadors, including the representative of the Netherlands, took a first cautious step on Wednesday to put an end to this culture of looking away. However, it has not yet come to a real blockage.
What makes the resistance extra big is a bizarre game in the back rooms of the European Parliament. There, parliament speaker Roberta Metsola is trying to crown her right-hand man, the Italian Alessandro Chiocchetti, as secretary-general of the institution. In this way, the Christian Democrats try to further strengthen their position of power. There are serious doubts among politicians about his suitability as the highest official of the European Parliament. In order to buy political support from the far-left European group, an extra official top position is being created with a corresponding monthly salary of around 20,000 euros.
Dutch MEPs have been resisting the spending drive for weeks. D66 MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld recently reacted furiously at the job carousel in an email to European fellow liberals. “If Parliament gets extra money, it should be used to improve our performance and not to create more top jobs. I don’t know how to explain this to my constituents in times of crisis.”