Belgian EU Commissioner Louis Michel, who stands to receive a “transition allowance” of €1.1 million over a period of three years after he leaves office initially stated ‘If that were true, I would retire immediately”. Unfortunately for Commissioner Michel it WAS true, and after consulting one of his employees he was forced to admit that the figures from the Open Europe research were actually correct.
Forced to defend his position, Michel then went on to try and justify his generous pension by saying that “We are well paid, though. But every morning at five o’clock I have to wake up, I have to make countless tours, endure heavy traffic jams ... This compensation is a parachute, okay, but certainly not a golden one.”
After admitting to mishandling the economic crisis, Commissioners still feel that they deserve a generous payoff while they change their jobs. What about the millions of people affected by their incompetence? Where is their support for finding new jobs?
Please Commissioners, let’s have some consistency... Libertas opposes the generous treatment of unelected Brussels elites at the expense of the European citizen. The EU should work FOR the people of Europe, not AGAINST them.
Taken from the Libertas Daily Update
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4 comments:
Hmmm. One of the negative aspects of being a politician is the lack of job security - you can be voted out at any time. Most political systems include mechanisms to compensate people who leave their jobs following an election - is Libertas saying this is a bad thing? How does the system for Commissioners differ from the system for British Ministers, for instance?
I am not sure that Commissioners count as politicians - they aren't elected, so their job security is fairly... well... secure. Mandelson went straight from being a Commissioner to the front bench as a Minister in the UK again.
No one in politics is worth €1.1 million over three years, especially as just a "moving on" payment! One of the reasons they are paid well in the first place is because of the potentially temporary nature of their position. Nor is it as if there is a shortage of people willing to take their place, so there's no market requirement for such high compensation.
Commissioners aren't politicians? Oh dear not that tired line again about them just being "civil servants". Get real, the powers of the Competition Commissioner, for instance, is easily comparable to a UK minister. They are also just as "elected" as the British PM. Commissioners are voted in first by the Council and then by the European Parliament. The PM is voted in by the MPs - not much difference really.
And they're all politicians, of course. To quote from that bible of knowledge, Wikipedia: "Louis H.O.Ch. Michel (born 2 September 1947) is a Belgian politician, serving as European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid."
Their job security is not at all secure. Apart from anything else, if your national party loses a general election, chances are you'll lose your Commissioner seat.
I would argue the point of them being as elected as a Prime Minister. All PMs are firstly MPs - they are elected and unelected by us. Commissioners are appointees of national governments. On top of that, with rare exceptions such as Gordon Brown, most PMs are chosen before a General Election, so the public know what they are voting for. Again, no party announced its choice of Commissioner before an election.
Perhaps we can agree that Commissioners aren't *elected* politicians?
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